


The Blades and the Bees

by HypotheticalWoman



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Biting, Blade of Marmora Keith (Voltron), Dissociation, Dom/sub Undertones, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Intersex Keith (Voltron), Knotting, M/M, Mating Bites, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Medical Procedures, Nesting, Oral Sex, Pining, Post-Episode: s02e08 The Blade of Marmora, Scent Marking, Somnophilia, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, awkward sex ed talks, contact embarrassment, no beta we die like ben, noodle people crime dramas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2019-08-22 17:24:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 44,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16602347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HypotheticalWoman/pseuds/HypotheticalWoman
Summary: The awakening of his knife has woken Keith's Galra blood - it seems he is an omega, and is due to go into heat for the first time, on a base full of alphas he barely knows.Lucky for him? Everyone here is intimately familiar with first heats, and he may not like it, but the Blade of Marmora is here for him in this, especially. If only it wasn't so embarrassing...





	1. The Condom on the Banana Has Nothing on This

‘Clearly the awakening of the blade has awakened your Galra heritage - this is not a phenomenon which I have come across before, but theoretically possible, I suppose.’

‘What are you _talking_ about?’

Kolivan levelled a calm and eternally deeply unimpressed gaze at Keith, who wondered if any of the Marmora were ever impressed by anything, ever, or if this was just a Kolivan thing. ‘I am talking,’ said Kolivan, ‘about the results of your blood test, and the implications thereof.’

‘Well… It confirmed I’m half-Galra, didn’t it?’ said Keith, a little uncertainly. ‘I thought that’s what we were testing for.’

‘It wasn’t, in fact. At least, yes, it confirmed that you are in fact a full fifty per cent Galra, the maximum possible for someone with one parent of another species. But that wasn’t what we were looking for.’ Kolivan sat down and gestured to the seat across from him at the planning table. ‘You should sit down. Possibly this information will be hard to hear.’

Keith sat, with every line of his body ready to fling him out of the chair and towards the door. ‘... _What_ information? If I’m terminally ill I wanna hear it straight. Don’t sugarcoat it.’

‘Sugarcoat?’ Kolivan’s brow creased for a moment, then he dismissed the idiom with a wave of his hand. ‘No, never mind that. You are not ill. You are, fact, in perfect health. But still we must discuss your health - specifically your sexual health. I gather it is a taboo subject on Earth even moreso than for the Galra.’

The expression on Keith’s face showed immediately what he thought of that. ‘Oh, god, I’m getting Galra sex ed. Kill me now. Do I have to?’

‘Yes, Keith, you must. Believe me, I would much rather Ulaz be the one to tell you this. He would be the better choice by far, but he is not here. So in his absence, I will have to do, and we will both have to endure this conversation. There are much worse hardships.’

Keith stared at the tabletop for a moment, then mumbled, ‘Right. So what’s the problem.’

Kolivan made a sound that suggested he may have suppressed an audible sigh. ‘As I said, you are perfectly healthy. A perfectly healthy, ordinary omega Galra.'

‘I’m a _what_?’

‘Has it… perhaps never occurred to you that your sexual organs are unusual compared to other Terran males?’

Keith gaped at Kolivan for a few seconds, then went back to staring at the table, where it was safe. The table didn’t judge him. ‘Well… sort of? I mean, intersex is a thing you can be, it’s not common but it isn’t _that_ unusual, but it never got corrected one way or another, so-’

‘And a very good thing too,’ said Kolivan. ‘You would be in a much more complex situation now, otherwise. Well, you are not “intersex”. You are perfectly average.’

It took a moment for this to sink in. ‘So… is this what all omega Galra junk looks like?’

‘No, it is what all _Galra_ ju- genitalia looks like. All of us, with of course the exception of those hybrids who take more strongly after their non-Galra parent, are equipped with both a penis and a vagina and are capable of bearing children.’

Keith looked deeply uncomfortable with the turn an already uncomfortable conversation had taken, and then the end of the sentence caught up with him. ‘Wait, _children_? So… if Galra males and females can both have kids, what’s the difference?’

‘Galra do not _have_ males or females,’ said Kolivan patiently. ‘What you think of as characteristic gender markers are merely variations in appearance, such as ear shape or fur density. We have alphas, omegas and betas instead, with the occasional variation which does not concern you currently, since they apply to nobody you know. If you meet a sigma or a theta then Ulaz or I will be happy to answer any questions you may have, after the more immediate problems they present have been dealt with. But according to your health check and all the tests we have, you are most definitely a very standard omega.’

Keith hunched down in his chair, arms folded defensively. ‘Okay, so if omegas aren’t the ones who get bred and have the puppies, what _do_ we do?’

‘I… what?’ Kolivan looked positively confused. ‘I’m sorry, Keith, you have lost me a little. What has any of this to do with Terran canines?’

‘Nothing, don’t worry about it,’ said Keith, flapping a hand at him. ‘On Earth the Alpha-Omega thing is generally associated with wolves. That’s all.’

‘Ah, I see. Yes, I remember your mother mentioned it once, an unfortunate linguistic coincidence…’

‘What was she?’

‘Alpha. I must stress, Keith, that your gender does not express anything _expected_ of you. It merely represents your instincts, which hail back to a time when we were a pack of social predators on a hostile planet, and required social roles to be filled to ensure the continuation of the species.’

‘Fine, but you keep dancing around it, this isn’t like you, Kolivan, what _is_ an omega?’

Kolivan steepled his fingers in thought. ‘It might be more accurate to say “what does an omega do?”’

‘If you don’t want to tell me I can go and ask Regris,’ said Keith flatly. ‘I bet he’d tell me. Is he an alpha?'

‘No,’ sighed Kolivan. ‘Regris is an omega like you, he’d probably be happy to tell you, although you would likely be hearing about it for the rest of your existence.’

Keith considered it. Regris was an omega, a half-Galra like himself and much closer to his own age. Well, he assumed Regris was closer in age to him than Kolivan was - he certainly acted that way. Eventually, Keith reached a decision.

‘You know what, I think he couldn’t be any worse than Lance,’ he said. ‘And to be honest, Kolivan, he’ll, well,’

‘Very likely be easier to speak to,’ Kolivan finished for him, looking very good at not looking relieved. ‘Of course. But I will send a comprehensive document on the subject to your Signature, and I expect you to read it.’

Keith nodded. ‘Yes Sir.’

Kolivan stood up, waited for Keith to follow him, then said, ‘I wish you luck, with this errand and in your future, for it will not be easy.’

‘I… Thanks.’

‘Don't mention it. You may go.’

 

* * *

 

Keith found Regris exactly where he’d expected to find him, in the computer lab, surrounded by a circle of floating holographic screens and with a litter of empty protein pouches and bottles around his hanging chair.

He didn’t find him right away, of course. There was a certain amount of wandering through the complex looking for him (looking for distractions) first, and then another few hours training. Then it was time to go back to his room to rest (hide) and procrastinate about reading the information document, until hunger drove him into the open again and he decided to bite the bullet and find Regris.

The Blades were just as limited as Voltron as far as food choice went, but in different ways, so Keith was slouching towards Regris’ usual haunt, chewing desultorily on blandly tasteless protein mush and swigging enriched vitamin drink out of a bottle. Regris was facing away from him when he stepped through the door, but he didn’t pause the rate of his flying fingers or turn around to address Keith.

‘There you are! I was wondering when you'd get here.’

Keith stopped in his tracks. ‘Wait, you knew all along?’

‘Only since yesterquintent evening.’ Regris started shutting down screens, one after another until in under a dobosh, there was only one screen open and the room was otherwise lit only with the cool bluish lighting of the Marmora base. He turned his back on the remaining screen and grinned. ‘I was starting to wonder if I'd have to come and fetch you. Well, are you going to sit down?’

Keith walked - no, slunk - to the only other chair in the room and sat down, his shoulders hunched up defensively around his ears. ‘Isn’t Kolivan mad that you keep this place such a mess?’

‘Heh. He doesn’t like it, but the only other person who really needs to come in here is Ilun and she’s even worse. Nobody else can do what we do and besides, we’re both omegas so it all gets cleaned up as soon as one of us goes on heat.’

Keith just stared at him, baffled. Regris looked back, and heaved a long and heartfelt sigh, as of one whose suffering is eternal. ‘You didn't read the info packet. I said you wouldn't. And after all that trouble Ulaz went to putting it together for you, too.’

Keith glared at the ground. ‘I was busy,’ he told it. It was a good listener. ‘I figured I'd read it after I spoke to you.’

‘Fine, fine,’ said Regris, not unkindly. ‘So do you have any pressing questions or should I just start the lecture?’

Keith had a feeling he should just let Regris talk. But there were several questions immediately presenting themselves, so he went with the first one. ‘What the hell is heat? You mean like cats?’

Regris gave him an odd look, turned to his single remaining screen for a few dobashes, then turned back. ‘Yes. At least partly like Terran cats. But with more self-control and other associated behaviors, and of course we’re half-Galra so it's got a few variations for us.’

‘Like?’ said Keith, gesturing wildly.

Regris only settled back in his chair and made it spin around a couple of times. ‘Well, first of all it's a shame I'm the only other hybrid omega in the base right now because _I'm_ half _Aardru_ , and _we’re_ androgynous, go into heat every seventeen movements and also we lay eggs.’

‘Oh. And I bet all those things apply to you.’

‘The egg thing hasn’t been tested but the Aardru strain is pretty strong. This, though-’ he gestured to the screen, ‘-says that you're not an egg layer, so there's that.’

Keith was extremely glad he had no Aardru heritage. ‘So… talk me through this heat thing. When do I know it's coming?’

‘I’ve known you three movements and I already know mood swings are usual for you, so-’

‘Great, you’re another, bigger Lance. I might've known there'd be one.’

Regris bared a frankly terrifying rack of needle-sharp teeth at him. ‘Calm down, I was just trying to get a rise out of you. But you knew that. This Lance fun to live with?’

‘You have no idea,’ mumbled Keith. ‘You were _saying_?’

‘Right, yes. Mood swings, or emotional extremes that are out of the ordinary for you. That’s generally a sign that your heat is about a movement away. An alpha would get either aggressive or irrationally protective instead, Antok and Kolivan are both really good at keeping their pre-rut drama to themselves but it's still best to give them space. I'll let you know when.’

‘Noted. Uh. Thanks, I appreciate it,’ said Keith. Regris just nodded and flicked his tail at him. ‘So… What happens next? Straight into acting like something out of amatuer porn?’

Regris gave a bark of laughter. ‘Wow, I can’t believe you're _ashamed_ of your _heat_ , are all humans like this?’

‘Sex generally isn't something we really talk about, mostly,’ said Keith, face burning. ‘Look, maybe I'd better wait for Ulaz to get back. At least I know he wouldn't laugh at me.’

Regris shrugged one shoulder, suddenly serious. ‘One thing you need to get used to, with the Blades. When people go, they might not come back.’

Keith stiffened. ‘I’m already used to that, thanks,’ he said coldly. ‘So what are you trying to tell me? That Ulaz is dead and nobody told me yet?’

‘Not so far as we know. We got his last report late last night, so that means he was alive a quintent ago. I'm just saying that if you can, you shouldn’t rely on people who might not come back for things you need. Like information.’

‘Right,’ said Keith, staring at an empty vitamin drink bottle and trying not to think of Shiro, or his father. ‘But can we not talk about people maybe being dead?’

‘You have to confront it sometime.’

‘I have confronted it and I don’t wanna talk about it right now. And don't laugh at me.’

Regris gave Keith an uncomfortably long looking-over, then said, ‘I can do the first. The second, I'll try, but no promises. You humans are just so funny sometimes.’

Keith rolled his eyes, but Regris’ tone offered no malice and an unexpected dose of kindness, so he just said, ‘So after the mood swings, what then?’

Regris reached down the side of his chair and produced a couple of bottles from somewhere Keith couldn't see; he tossed one to Keith and cracked open the other. ‘After PHD-’

‘Pre-heat drama?’

‘Well done, that omega. Paying attention.’ Regris tipped his bottle to Keith. ‘After that comes nesting. You'll start getting ultra houseproud and trying to make your space the most comfortable it’s ever been.’

‘Is this about having a good place to fuck in?’ asked Keith warily.

‘That's part of it, yeah,’ said Regris. ‘It’s also about making the most welcoming possible environment for your alpha. If you already have an alpha, like, a properly bonded one, or sometimes not even that, they'll want to help you build your nest. It's considered…’ Regris hesitated.

‘Romantic?’ suggested Keith.

‘Yeah,’ said Regris uncertainly. ‘Galra aren’t really the type. But I suppose you _could_ call it romantic. Or thoughtful. Ulaz does it for me all the time but we're not bonded, it's just him being… nice.’

Keith thought about Ulaz. He didn't know him well - he didn't know any of the Blades well - but he’d encountered him in person more than most of the others, enough to form the outline of an opinion of him. Whether he was the type to do romantic things to help a colleague through his heat was something Keith couldn't say, but he was a doctor, and he did seem the type to commit himself utterly to anything he applied himself to. What had happened to Shiro under Ulaz’s care was awful, and Keith found it hard to forgive him, but he could see why he'd done it, and that Shiro would have been in a much worse state had it been anyone else.

‘Yes,’ he said at last. ‘I can imagine Ulaz doing that. Thoughtful. Yeah. He’s an alpha?’

‘No, he's a beta. Betas don’t get heats or ruts but they can fill the role of alpha or omega if there's a lack of either. Which we don't have here, but sometimes you get a crazy hybrid like me who needs three or four partners per heat, and they’re useful. They’re also good for making sure normal couples have everything they need and don't need to go anywhere.’

‘ _Three or four_?!’

Regris flapped a hand at him. ‘I'll tell you about it some other time. Next question?’

Keith swallowed down his sudden hungry curiosity and focussed. ‘Right, yeah. So mood swings, nesting, and then humiliating sex-crazed mania?’

‘You really think you’re going to debase yourself completely, don’t you? Don’t you realise everyone on this base thinks this is completely normal? Either they’re an omega who’s been through it regularly or they’re an alpha or a beta who’s helped an omega through it. It’s not a big deal, Keith.’ Regris smiled. ‘I promise you’re going to come out of this with your dignity intact. There’s no need to be scared. Also, no, it goes PHD, nesting, trying to eat the world - that usually starts about halfway through the nesting stage - and then after a couple of quintents of that, _then_ heat proper starts.’

‘I’m not scared,’ said Keith.

‘Aren’t you?’ Regris raised an eyebrow. ‘It’s OK if you are. I was. Hadrokk - he was the head medic here at the time - had explained it to me but I still didn’t know what to expect. You have the advantage on me, you’ve met actual humans, so you have a rough idea how long your heat will last and what it will be like.’

‘What? How do I know that?’

Regris dragged his screen around and started pulling up references. ‘Well, for one, it says here that you’re mammals and often have a period of trial matings, and then habitually mate for life, although the sexual encounters themselves are generally quite short. You don’t have heats, but the childbearing members of your species have menstrual cycles, which can be similar. Do you menstruate?’

‘Yes. A bit.’ Keith avoided Regris’ gaze, but Regris wasn’t looking at him anyway.

‘Alright, so you’re unlikely to have the kind of heat an Aardru would have, which is a movement-long sleepless heat-driven frenzy which requires at least four people to keep up, and another three quintents to recover from. Luckily it only happens about a third as frequently as most people’s heats. It says here the typical menstrual cycle for humans is twenty-eight quintents on average, so I’d expect your heat to follow roughly that time pattern, and for you to need only one partner, two at the absolute most.’

‘That’s… good to hear. Wait, you had your first heat on the base too? Kolivan said he’d never heard of this,’ he gestured to himself, and his knife, ‘happening before.’

‘Oh, I was hatched and raised here, or at least, at our previous main base. Again, I’ll tell you some other time. So you know when your heat is actually starting because you start feeling uncomfortable. Like every scale- sorry, I mean, like all your fur-’

‘Wrong again.’

‘Alright, like every hair is pricking into you, you’re wearing your skin a size too small maybe, there’s something in your eyes and under your claws and you can just feel all the dry skin gathering under your clothes.’

‘I think I get the idea.’

‘So you get your alpha back to your nest - ideally as soon as possible, because the only thing that makes it better is being touched. At this stage it’s fine just to have your back stroked or your fur brushed or something innocuous like that but every omega I know agrees with me that as soon as you’re in the nest, clothes have to go.'

Keith tried to imagine being naked around Kolivan, or Antok, and completely failed. Ulaz was hardly a more attractive prospect. ‘I can see why,’ he said cautiously. ‘It sounds like torture. So how long does that stage last?’

‘A varga or two, usually, but it varies. Ilun never seems to get the cuddly stage at all and Marez sometimes manages to spin it out for an entire quintent if he’s been especially stressed lately. We think that might be a half-Cybrachian thing, though. But gradually - if you’re not me, that is - you start getting needier and touchier until finally all you want is.’ Regris stopped and grimaced a little at the look on Keith’s face. ‘Do I need to put this gently?’

‘Until all I’ll want is to get fucked. My instincts taking over and making me think what I really want more than anything is to be filled up and bred full of babies. Right?’

Regris spread out his hands. ‘Weeelll… _sort_ of? But we have contraceptives for that. And heat suppressants _are_ a thing, we have some in the base, but they’re unreliable for hybrids and cause all kinds of nasty side-effects. Take it from someone who was on a bunch for over a decaphoeb. They made me so sick. But nobody is going to make you and if you ask Vrek for heat suppressants he’ll give them to you.’

‘Does it have to be with a person? Can’t I get hold of, you know, any toys instead?’

Regris just looked at him for a moment. ‘That sounds bleak. Wow, a heat with just a pile of toys for company. I wouldn’t wish that on Zarkon. But if you’re really sure then fine, I’ll help you get hold of any kind of sex aid you think might help.'

‘I just…’ Keith breathed into his hands. ‘I don’t _know_ anyone here. This is way too personal a conversation for me to be having with a guy I met under a month ago. I didn’t even know anyone on Voltron properly but there was Shiro - I know him.’

‘Well, it doesn’t have to be an alpha or a beta. Could be an omega or even someone from a species that doesn’t have these at all. That’s the reason Galra spread so well, they hybridise so readily. Your other parent wasn’t an alpha, beta or omega, right?’

‘I can’t get Shiro to come here just for my heat,’ said Keith firmly. ‘Voltron have important stuff to do and anyway, Shiro and I aren’t like that.’

‘You _seemed_ like that at the Trial.’

‘Yeah, well, we’re not!’ snapped Keith.

Silence stretched into more silence, Regris spun himself around in his chair thoughtfully. Eventually he said, ‘So you want to ask him… but you don’t think he would?’

‘Oh, he would, alright,’ said Keith. ‘He’d do it out of duty if he thought I needed him to, he does everything for everyone else and nothing for himself, ever. But he’d be embarrassed and we couldn’t be friends again.’

‘Ah,’ said Regris. ‘Human relationships are very complicated.’

Keith gave a humourless huff of laughter and stood up. ‘I need to go and talk to Vrek about those contraceptives. And ask him about the side effects of heat suppressants. Uh, thanks for this, Regris.’

Regris nodded. ‘Come and ask- actually no, message me before you come next time, I was expecting you this time but next time I might not be.’

‘Got it. Later.’

‘Good luck.’

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is what has been eating my head while I should have been working on Words. Apologies, this should be out of the way pretty soon. It actually started as an indulgent Sheith pwp fic but then I needed context and as we all know, that's a trap, and now Shiro isn't even in it. I promise I'll write a Sheith fic one day. In the meantime you get this and I hope you enjoy it. Lx
> 
> PS: Realised recently that there are a LOT of little inconsistencies and contradictions in this story. Bear with me, I'll go back and fix them all when I'm done. Love ya!


	2. Everyone Hates Going To The OB/GYN

Vrek, the Marmora head medic in Ulaz’s absence, was unmemorable enough that Keith didn’t actually remember what he looked like until he got to the sickbay. When he did see him he was pretty forgettable even then - a tallish, leanish, full-blood Galra, with the usual large ears giving him the classic squared-off head silhouette, averagely purple, plush fur and general aura of never being amused by anything at all, ever. He was distinctive in his normalness.

He looked around from the scans he was running as Keith came in. ‘Hello, Keith. Regris said you’d be by.’

‘Ugh, can’t I do anything without everyone gossiping about it?’ said Keith.

Vrek shrugged languidly. ‘He was only warning me to clear my schedule for you for the next varga or so. So I’m at your mercy. What do you need?’

Keith resigned himself to his fate. ‘Kolivan and Regris gave me the alpha-omega talk today.’

‘Oh, yes. You’re quite a special case, you know. Normally I’d expect you to have come on heat at least two decaphoebs ago - it doesn’t sound like much when I say it like that, but considering your species’ usual manifestation of puberty… hm.’ Vrek curled a speculative hand round his mouth. ‘Maybe it wasn’t the knife? Maybe you’re just a late bloomer?’

Keith shook his head. ‘If it was that I wouldn’t be having periods.’

‘Periods?’

‘Menstruating. I started that at thirteen.’

‘Oh. Then you probably should have started heats around the same time. You’re eighteen decaphoebs old now?’

It was Keith’s turn to shrug. ‘Eighteen Earth years. I don’t know if that’s the same.’

Vrek consulted one of the computer screens beside him, then said, ‘Slightly less, I think. In Daibazaali time you would be twelve and a half tlungits, but that is something of a moot point regarding the state of my home planet. Anyway.’ Something seemed to occur to him. ‘Why are you just standing there in the doorway? Come in and sit down. This isn’t a briefing.’

‘Do you… stand in doorways for briefings?’ asked Keith cautiously, taking the chair Vrek offered him.

To his surprise, Vrek looked a lot more distinctive when he laughed, like he actually meant it. ‘No. But you looked like you expected a dressing-down of the sort Kolivan or Antok might give you.’

‘I’ve already spoken to Kolivan, I think he hated it as much as I did.’

‘Yes, I expect so. He’s… a very reserved person. About the only criticism I have about him as a leader is that he tries to do everything himself and doesn’t delegate enough.’

Keith smiled sadly. ‘Sounds like someone I know.’

‘Also you didn’t hear that from me.’

‘Absolutely.’ Keith nodded. Suddenly he liked Vrek a lot better than he had five doboshes ago. ‘So, uh. Two things. I’ll start with the simple one, right?’ Vrek just gestured for him to continue. ‘If I’m gonna have heats I obviously need some kind of contraceptive, don’t I.’

‘You do,’ said Vrek. ‘Based on your blood test I have two lined up for you to try - I think we’ll start you on Caformaril to begin with, since it seems most compatible with similar species. You have to understand I’ve never worked on a human before, if Ulaz was here we’d be much more prepared, but he’s not. So sorry in advance for that. It might make you present as more Galra-like in appearance, especially under stress, and all hormone regulators will mess with your emotions, appetite and sleeping patterns a little, so there’s not a great deal we can do about that. Eventually it should level out, give it a couple of movements for your body to get used to it.’

‘But it will work?’ said Keith.

‘If it doesn’t we’ll give you a simple oral abortifacient and try you on Lanticien instead,’ replied Vrek. ‘We’ll find one for you sooner rather than later. And I thought you’d rather have the pill rather than the shot to begin with.’ He handed Keith a bottle which would turn out to be full of little green pills. ‘One of these per day, before bed. Don’t take them after heat proper begins, start again when heat is over. If this works for you we’ll see about getting you an implant.’

‘Right,’ said Keith, taking the bottle and putting it into one of the innumerable hidden pockets in his uniform. ‘So, next question. Regris said heat suppressants were an option.’

Vrek’s brows shot up. ‘He said that, did he? I mean, he has some difficult heats but he’s not you, that’s… not good advice, Keith.’

Keith looked down at his knees. ‘I… was maybe panicking a little bit. I just… This kind of thing isn’t really a thing we talk about in public on Earth and I don’t know anyone here and I don’t know that I’m ready to… _do_ that with people who I barely know… It’s bad enough that I have to talk about it with so many people.’

‘I understand.’

Keith looked up. ‘You do? Regris thought it was funny.’

Vrek rolled his eyes. ‘Regris would. The only taboos he has concern the almost total obliteration of his parent’s species by the Galra, and even then he regards the whole thing with a kind of black humour that makes even Antok uncomfortable. He certainly has no sexual taboos whatsoever. That doesn’t mean that _you’re_ not allowed to be shy about it.’

‘Oh.’ Keith was quiet for a moment. ‘I mean, he was nice about it. Everyone’s been really nice about it.’

Vrek smiled. ‘Of course. It’s a universal experience. Only the three betas we have have not gone through first heat or first rut, and they have all helped innumerable times.’

‘So which are you?’

‘I’m an alpha. And yes, my first rut was moderately terrifying. The part of me that was still thinking straight was terrified that I would identify the wrong person as an enemy and kill one of my friends, but luckily my family locked me in the basement and only allowed blood family members to see me until I calmed down. It was still distressing, because I was convinced that there was something outside that they were not allowing me to defend them from.’

Keith looked at him strangely. ‘So alphas… protect omegas?’

‘Alphas protect the family and the home, yes. They make sure all are safe and that any predators don’t get close. Omegas, you might say, _are_ the home. They furnish the inside of the home, they make sure everyone inside is safe and comfortable, they provide the final defences should anything get past the alphas. And betas bring food to the alphas and the omegas, they provide for everyone if the alphas are busy defending, they fill in if either of the other roles is in short supply, they can be a middle line of defence for the home between alpha and omega in times of attack.’

‘Right. That… makes a ton of sense,’ said Keith. ‘Why didn’t Kolivan want to tell me that?’

‘I have no idea,’ said Vrek. ‘Maybe he felt you would think being an omega meant you were weak. Mark my words, omegas are not weak. They’re often stronger than alphas, and wilier. You have to be, to face down something that can get past your alphas and your betas.’

Keith thought about it. ‘Still,’ he said after a while. ‘Please tell me about heat suppressants.’

Vrek sighed heavily. ‘Alright. Well, we got them initially for Regris because his heats can be… unpleasant, but the side effects turned out to be too much for him. They _did_ work, though.’

‘Side effects?’

‘Nausea, migraines, insomnia, light-headedness, increased or ceased menstruation, scale shedding - that wouldn’t be an issue for you but dry skin probably would be - hair loss, lowered libido, hormonal crash, hallucinations, fainting, loss of appetite, nightmares-’ Vrek went on counting dreadful-sounding side-effects until eventually, Keith could bear it no more and stopped him.

‘Alright, fine, enough. And all this happened to Regris?’

‘Not all at once.’

‘Fucking _hell_. Fine. No heat suppressants.’ He leaned back in his chair and pushed his hands through his hair. ‘What am I going to _do_?’

‘You could just… let it happen. Maybe it won’t be as bad as you think.’

‘Every time I try and think about it my brain just… adds in shitty lighting and sound effects like it’s some porn bot on the internet. I can imagine my own face in the “oh fuck this hurts but I’m trying to look sexy” pose.’

Funnily enough, Vrek didn’t look baffled or have to look anything up. Instead, he just looked sympathetic. ‘You’d be _amazed_ how common that is. But anyone on this base would be privileged to help you through your first heat. It’s considered an honour to be asked.’

‘Really?’ Keith met his gaze skeptically. ‘What, like being best man at a wedding?’

That one, Vrek did have to look up. But when he had, he smiled and nodded. ‘Yes, like that. About that level of prestige.’

‘Um. I don’t have any idea who I’d ask, Vrek. I only know a few people here are alphas and a couple of omegas, I barely know anybody by sight yet, what would I even _say_?’

‘I’ll send you a list of all the Blades on the base at the moment and their genders, plus if any of them are half-Galra, any complications those are likely to cause. And honestly, you just ask. You go up to them - maybe in private - and say “I need someone to help me through my first heat, could you please do the honours?” Any Galra on this base will be delighted to help you.’

‘Right.’ Keith tried not to think that it was because he was the newest piece of meat on the base. Instead he said, ‘Yeah, that list would be a great help. Thanks a lot.’

Then he stood up. ‘I gotta go think. And actually read that document of Ulaz’s. Bye, Vrek.’

 

* * *

 

The document didn’t tell him a lot that Kolivan, Regris and Vrek hadn’t told him already. It outlined a fair amount of anatomical and social data that was entirely new to him, and explained that heats were relatively neutral in Galra society. The heats themselves were spoken about as easily as one spoke about dinnertime, but what happened in the nest was between oneself and one’s alpha and was private, a symbolic protective enclosure that strengthened both roles.

Keith was very relieved to hear about that.

The brief overview about ‘bonding’ seemed to assume - correctly, in Keith’s opinion - that it wouldn’t apply to him, since he was definitely not ready to form yet another powerful psychic bond in this lifetime, especially one that sounded so much like marriage, and especially one that involved something so painful-sounding as a bite to the scent gland in the neck. Keith had previously had no idea where his scent glands were but he found himself unconsciously rubbing the curve where his neck met his shoulder. No, no bonding would be happening. Absolutely not.

Vrek’s list was more comprehensive than he’d expected and included a few Blades not currently on base, ‘in case they return on time’. Some, like Kolivan, Antok and Regris, he dismissed out of hand. Some he was much more speculative about, and gradually news started to get around that the newest Blade was late starting his heat and might choose anyone on base as a partner. It soon became clear that it was an attractive prospect to most of the alphas but even if Keith was prepared to be wooed, he wasn’t prepared for any of the Blades to start behaving quite like _this_.

It started when he walked into the kitchen one morning and four people stopped talking, then abruptly started again. He was aware of being watched as he walked across the room, and then a broad-shouldered Blade with impractically long black hair beat him to the drink dispenser.

Ganda, that was her name. She was one of the explosives specialists. She handed Keith a drink with an enthusiastic greeting and he took it, aware that there were several other alphas glaring at Ganda from around the room. ‘Uh. Morning, Ganda. Morning, everyone?’

The chorus of ‘hellos’ from around the room immediately made his shoulders come up, especially when Ganda put an arm around him and said, ‘Quit it, you guys, you’re making him uncomfortable.’

Keith slipped out from under her arm. ‘OK no offense but you’re _all_ making me uncomfortable. I know what this is about and I am _not_ gonna get persuaded by you guys being overly friendly and trying to get my breakfast for me, alright? I’ll choose on my own.’

Ganda’s face fell, and so did several others around the room, but she stepped away out of Keith’s space, and he let himself breathe out and take a sip of the vitamin drink.

‘Sorry, Keith,’ said Ganda, sitting down and starting to braid up her hair. ‘I’ve never done a first heat before. It’d be… pretty huge.’

‘You never will if that’s the way you act,’ rumbled a voice from the corner of the room. It was Antok, who had been concentrating on his protein mash and hadn’t reacted when Keith came in. ‘Honestly, all of you cubs, you’re ridiculous. Keith, could I speak with you outside for a moment? I give you my word I am not trying to make a… prospect of myself.’

Keith was honestly terrified of Antok, but he believed him, and he followed him out into the corridor. Once there, Antok just said quietly, ‘Once again I assure you that I am not trying to win your favour. Kolivan and I are bonded. I only assist in heats now in emergencies.’

‘Oh. Fine, sure.’ Keith relaxed a little. ‘So what did you want to say?’

‘Only that if you are made to feel uncomfortable enough by their efforts to make you ask their assistance, please ask for help. It is true that to be allowed to assist with a first heat is an honour almost beyond words, and all of the unbonded alphas and betas on this base will be envious of whoever you ask, but you are not alone in this. Many of them - such as Ganda - are young and have never been taught manners. You should appeal to the chain of command should you need it.’

Keith nodded and gave a little twitch of a smile. ‘Yeah, I will. Thanks, I appreciate it. Is it a tremendous faux-pas if I insult them a little bit if they get too close? I feel a little bad because everyone’s been going on about honour so much.’

Antok snorted. ‘Have at it. It will probably remind them of their place. Off you go now, and make sure you don’t allow any of them to fetch you your breakfast for you. Show them you are in charge.’

‘Yes sir.’ Keith saluted and went back into the kitchen.

He was immediately faced with three bowls from different directions, and stiffened, but this time he knew what to do. ‘Do I _look_ incapable to you?’ he said to the nearest Blade, whose smile dropped off his face instantly.

‘Well, of course not, I just-’

‘This is a _Blade of Marmora_ uniform I’m wearing, isn’t it?’ He addressed the next one, gesturing to himself.

This one was a little more collected, he smiled a little and said calmly, ‘It is, and it suits you very well.’

‘Would you think any member of the Blade of Marmora should be too stupid to get his own breakfast?’

‘That’s not what any of us meant to imply, I’m deeply sorry if-’

But Keith had rounded on the last one, glaring. ‘ _Well_?’

She just put the bowl down on the counter and walked away, hands up. ‘Nothing. I have absolutely nothing to say.’

‘Right.’ Keith pointedly retrieved his own bowl of protein mash and stalked out.

Behind him, he heard Antok say, ‘You idiots deserved that.’

‘Oh, probably,’ came a reply Keith couldn’t identify. ‘Wasn’t it hot, though?’

Keith just walked quicker.

 

* * *

 

From then on, Keith mostly avoided anyone he knew was an alpha as much as he could, and if any of them approached him he snapped at them to make them back off - mostly it worked, although after four quintents the gossip mill of Marmora could talk about little else.

Keith was very aware of that fact.

He was sitting in the lounge, very pointedly engrossed in the Bee-Bii crime drama on his tablet and exuding a tangible aura of ‘if you interrupt me I will cut you’. So when someone sat down beside him they probably deserved the furious glare they got.

The glare relaxed a bit when it turned out to be Regris.

‘Morning,’ he said. ‘Oooh, is this Boh-Be-Bu Boo-Bee-Bii? I love that show.’

Keith shrugged. ‘Yeah, I have to watch it with subtitles ‘cause for some reason the translators won’t catch it but it’s really well-written. I did think Beh-ba did it but now I’m not so sure.’

Regris laughed. ‘Well, I’m not gonna spoil it for you.’

‘You better not.’

‘So… still not picked an alpha?’

Keith groaned and looked around the room, where five seperate Blades had looked round like dogs who had heard the word ‘treat’. ‘Honestly? Can’t you be any more obvious?’ he snapped. ‘You’re supposed to be _spies_. And Regris, you had to ask me that _here_? Wait, what am I talking about, you’re you, of course you did. No, I haven’t chosen. I’ll choose in my own time.’

Regris laughed. ‘You’re dealing with the attention well. Ilun thinks so too.’

‘Hm. Thanks, I guess.’ Then something occurred to him. ‘Hey, actually, Regris, come with me. I need to ask you something.’ He raised his voice a little. ‘ _No_ , I’m not about to ask Regris for help with my heat, so settle down. Come on.’

Regris followed him out, and as soon as they were in an empty training room, said, ‘Well, I don’t know whether to be disappointed or not.’

‘Everything I know about your situation scares the shit out of me, to be honest.’

Regris shrugged. ‘That’s fair. So what’s your question?’

‘I’m stuck. I need some advice. Who would you choose if you were me?’

‘I'm not you,’ said Regris, surprisingly gently. ‘Still, I… guess since Ulaz isn’t here, and Peratz will be recovering from that injury for the next while… uh. I think if I were where you are I’d pick Vrek, actually?’

‘Vrek?’ said Keith, surprised.

‘Yeah - except that my last heat was the first time he’d ever assisted with a heat and he made a few mistakes, mostly out of tiredness and inexperience. But he fixed them well. I don’t think he’d make them again. Especially since you’d be much easier to take care of. You look confused.’

‘No, not confused,’ said Keith. ‘I’m just thinking. So… how old is Vrek? I can’t tell.’

‘He’s about the same age as Langath.’

‘I have no idea how old that is. Try this: I’m about eighteen decaphoebs old. How old is he in relation to that.’

‘Oh. He’s nearly twenty-nine. He’s actually a really high achiever, he’s the second youngest Blade to ever be second medic. I know he’s no stunner to look at but he’s got quite a mind. Ulaz has been saying Vrek will take over from him soon.’

‘Really?’ Keith sat down on the bench and crossed his arms on his knees. ‘You sound like you admire him.’

‘Yeah, I do. He’s working in a field I know nothing about and we’d fall apart without our medics. Literally.’

‘Hm.’

‘Are you going to ask him?’

‘I’m… going to ask a few more omegas what they think, is what I’m going to do. _Don’t_ tell anyone, I’m sick of having people talking about me. I’m trusting you with this, Regris.’

Regris grinned. ‘Aw, I’m so touched. Does this mean we’re friends?’

Keith gave a cough of laughter. ‘Only if it stays secret. I could use a friend right now, so sure.’

‘Your secret is safe with me.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know those birds of paradise with the black plumage and the blue smileys on their chests? Imagine like all the Marmora alphas are acting like that right now. And their armour isn't that far off, either.
> 
> Also I thought the idea of a surprisingly gritty noodle-people crime drama would be hilarious and probably something Keith would like so you get that too. Lx


	3. I Choose... You!

The first Keith was aware that anything might be starting was when he woke up one morning - or whatever passed for morning on the meteor - feeling _charged_. Training was always a competitive affair, but he knew when to stop - _some_ of the time. This time he got into the training room and he fought, and he fought, and he fought, until sweat was running down his back and every muscle was burning, but still he wasn’t beaten, so he wasn’t going to stop.

‘End simulation.’

Keith _screamed_ in frustration and wheeled round to face Kolivan, wild-eyed and breathing hard. ‘ _Why_?!’

‘Because you will do yourself an injury,’ replied Kolivan calmly. ‘This manic urge is part of the early stages of your heat. You need to learn to recognise these feelings and regulate them for yourself.’

‘You’re saying I want to train because of PHD? Seriously?’

‘Mania is a common symptom manifestation, yes. As is anger, frustration, depression, insomnia-’

‘This is going to be terrible,’ said Keith, drooping. ‘I get the idea.’

‘Have a shower and go and get something to eat,’ said Kolivan. ‘Even if you display your emotions to the Blades here, they will understand, I promise.’

Keith nodded and headed off miserably to the showers.

 

* * *

 

The document had mentioned scents. Keith just wasn't prepared for it to be so _overpowering_.

He went into group training two quintents after his encounter with Kolivan and almost walked straight out again - the omega and beta smells he could identify and dismiss, they were unique to their owners but almost reassuring in their comparative blandness.

But there were six alphas in here and it was frightening how all of them stood out in olfactory relief. What was even worse was the realization of sudden desire and how disgusted Keith was with himself for feeling it.

He didn’t even know he’d frozen up until someone came into his eyeline and said quietly, ‘Keith. Can you hear me?’

Keith yelped and rounded on the invader. ‘Don't touch me! If anyone touches me I'll chew your arms off!’

But it was only Ilun, one of the smaller omegas - Keith could deal with Ilun, especially if she stayed about six feet away like that, with her hands inoffensively raised.

‘Nobody's going to touch you,’ she said. ‘How about you don’t do group training with alphas this heat?’

Keith bristled. ‘I can handle it!’ he snarled. ‘I’m not going to let this make me weak!’ Even so, he was aware that all of the alphas in the room were carefully filing out, trying to stay where he couldn’t see them, and he wheeled round to face them only to be hit by a dizzying wall of intoxicating scent. He tried to pretend that it hadn’t made him actually _sway_ for a moment, putting all his resentment into his voice as he snapped, ‘Don’t you dare patronise me! I could take any of you on and make _pulp_ of you, right here, right now.’

‘Oh, god, yeah, he probably could,’ muttered someone.

‘Might have known he’d get fighty,’ said someone else and Keith turned towards the speaker, hands curled into fists and pupils slitting.

‘Ilun, Regris, get him out of here,’ said Kolivan over his shoulder. ‘Enlist all the help you need. Keith, do what they say, that’s an order.’

Keith’s spine stiffened and he could feel his face heating up. It made no sense, except it made far too much sense. Kolivan, an alpha, had given him an order, and suddenly all Keith wanted was to drop to his knees and obey.

He swallowed, trying to get moisture to his suddenly dry throat, and rasped, ‘Yes, sir.’

Kolivan only turned away, looking deeply uncomfortable as he herded the other alphas out.

‘Come on, minibomb,’ said Regris. ‘Let’s go to the little viewing room over the hangar. I always liked that place.’

Keith nodded and let the other two omegas lead him. The viewing room was barely bigger than his shack in the desert had been, but it was furnished as comfortably as any room on the base, and it offered an unparalleled view of the nebula. Once there, Keith collapsed in a chair and shoved his hands through his hair.

‘What was _that_?! I knew about the scents but why did nobody say it would be that _strong_?’

Ilun and Regris exchanged glances.

‘I… don’t know,’ said Regris. ‘It’s been a thing for me for so long that I guess it didn’t occur to me. But Keith, nobody’s going to think you’re weak if you only train with omegas until your heat. Or even if you stop training at all. That’s totally common for first heats.’

‘Normal, even,’ said Ilun.

‘No,’ said Keith sullenly. ‘I have to get used to it some time. What if it becomes an issue in the field?’

Ilun shrugged a wiry shoulder. ‘That’s something you’re going to have to get trained for, yes, but _not right now_. Get your first heat out of the way first, you don’t have anything to prove however much you think you do.’

‘But what if I-’ he stopped, aware he was whining, and looked down. ‘Nothing.’

‘No, come on, tell me what the problem is,’ said Regris. ‘Omegas got to stick together.’

‘Have they?’ said Keith, drawing back suddenly. ‘Have they really? Honestly I don’t know right now. I don’t know anybody here, least of all who I can trust. So why have I got to stick together with you?’

Ilun put out her hands. ‘Hey, calm down, easy, take a deep breath. You don’t have to tell us anything, but we can’t help you if we don’t know what’s worrying you. We’ve both had heats, we can tell you what’s normal.’

‘How can _Regris_ tell me what’s normal?’

‘He has a point,’ said Regris. ‘Seriously, though. Keith. You want to stay on top of this? Don’t let the PHD get the better of you.’

Keith glared at him. ‘I’m not… fuck.’

Ilun smiled at him. ‘It happens to the best of us, don’t worry.’

Keith nodded. There was a long silence, and gradually the tension dissipated, until finally Keith said, ‘OK, so, I got in there and I could smell _everyone_ . Even you guys. Even Lastor, and I know he’s a beta. But the alphas all stood out _individually_.’

‘Oh, yeah, that’s absolutely normal,’ said Ilun, nodding. ‘Totally expected. You’re supposed to be able to identify your alpha by scent alone, over up to a griptaph sometimes.’

‘Griptaph?’ said Keith, brow crinkling.

Regris brought up a screen from a console on his wrist. ‘One point seven six two kilometres, but I’d say if you’re bonded and the wind is right you could find each other by scent over at least three kilometers, as long as the ground is unforested.’

‘Quiznak,’ said Keith. ‘Is it normal to… want… _all_ of them?’

Regris and Ilun both laughed, but not unkindly. ‘At this stage of heat? Oh yes,’ said Ilun. ‘Your body is trying to make you choose.’

‘And when Kolivan told me to do what you said,’ said Keith, but he couldn’t finish the sentence or look either of the others in the eye.

Regris took pity on him. ‘An alpha - a powerful one - gave you an order. You did really well to stay on your feet, actually, I’ve seen him give orders to omegas in early stages of heat and they dropped to their knees on the spot. _Haven’t I_ , Ilun?’

‘The only reason it didn’t happen to _you_ is because you were already on the floor when he did it,’ replied Ilun coolly. ‘Anyway, you know he hates it as much as anyone else.’

Keith swallowed. ‘Wait, _what_ happened to Regris?’

Regris sighed. ‘Ilun, you owe me for this. It was my first heat, I was about fourteen decaphoebs old and I walked into the lounge and the next thing I know there’s this _wall_ of scent and I couldn’t stay standing if you told me standing up would bring Denka back.’

Ilun grimaced. ‘Regris, not the time.’

‘Fine, fine. Anyway, then the whole world is full of Kolivan - and he wasn’t leader then, or even close, but he’s always had so much presence and he was still my superior by a pretty long shot - and he ordered me to stand up.’

‘He had to tell him twice,’ said Ilun. ‘And Kolivan’s face when Regris grabbed his ankle and tried to scent him is still one of the most precious memories I have.’

Keith snorted, and Regris shot Ilun a scandalised look. ‘Seriously? I thought I could trust you.’

‘Are you going to tell him this story or not? I just don’t want you to leave anything out.’

Regris rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, fine. So I got up. He didn’t have to ask twice, I was just… a bit weak in the legs, there was a delay. Before Ilun tells you, I had to climb up him a bit.’

‘He looked _so_ unhappy about that.’

‘I can imagine,’ said Keith, trying not to laugh. ‘So what then? It doesn’t sound like you were in much of a state to build a nest.’

‘Well, Kolivan handed me off to Vashet to get me calmed down and I managed to get my nest built in time. Just about.’

‘This is going quicker than you said,’ said Keith. ‘You said I’d have about a movement.’

Regris nodded. ‘Yeah, you do. I’m… sort of a special case. You should probably avoid the group areas where there’ll be a lot of alphas, though - the combined scents might speed things up a bit. You haven’t chosen yet, have you?’

‘No.’ Keith’s eyes narrowed. ‘I thought I had more time.’

‘Oh, you do!’ said Ilun. ‘But having an assigned alpha might make it go easier. It’d be their job to help you and to keep the others away.’

Keith grimaced. ‘Will they be that much of a problem?’

To his horror, both Ilun and Regris winced. ‘Well… all of the Blades here have excellent self-control,’ said Ilun. ‘It’s been known for Regris to go into chemically-induced heat in the middle of a mission and the three alphas with him behaved incredibly.’

‘Seriously, you’d have thought they were robots,’ said Regris. ‘Nobody here is going to attack you. But you have to be aware that you smell too.’

Keith looked horrified, then dropped his face into his hands with a despairing groan. ‘Of course I do. I bet I smell really strongly to every alpha on the base, right?’

Ilun nodded sympathetically. ‘Getting stronger, too. It’s not a bad smell, for what it’s worth? Kind of smoky.’

‘You can smell it too? No, I don’t even want to know. Look, I don’t know who to ask. Who would you ask?’

Ilun sat back, clicking her tongue on her teeth. ‘Oh. Well, that’s a question. Have you asked Regris? He knows every alpha and beta on the base, and some of the omegas too.’

‘Yes,’ said Keith and Regris together, and then Keith said, ‘I also asked Denlor and Tlak, and I was going to ask Haktora but she got sent on that mission so I asked Keenwar instead. Now I’m asking you.’

‘Huh.’ Ilun’s brows went up in a kind of facial shrug, and she thought about it for a bit. After a while she said, ‘Well, just from alphas who are on the base, unbonded and totally healthy. My first choice would be Danit. He seems like a grumpy asshole but he’ll keep his head for both of you and he’s got the experience to know what to do in any eventuality. Second choice would be Ganthor just because I was with her for my second heat and I’ve never felt so safe. She’s really great at just making you feel like everything will be fine. And just for good measure I think I might consider Vrek. I’ve never shared a heat with him but I _have_ helped with a couple of his ruts and he’s always very concerned about the welfare of everyone around him even when he’s half-crazed with aggression and lust.’

‘Hm.’ Keith thought. ‘Regris said Vrek, too.’

‘I’m the only one who’s shared a heat with him so far,’ Regris pointed out. ‘It was good, though. I still think you should pick him.’

‘Yeah, you might be onto something. Like, _all_ of the others mentioned him in some capacity too.’

‘That’s not too surprising,’ said Ilun. ‘He keeps to himself but he’s a pretty popular guy.’

‘Yeah,’ said Keith thoughtfully. ‘He does, doesn’t he…’ He reached a decision and stood up. ‘I need to find Vrek.’ Then something occurred to him. ‘Will I be able to talk to him without the scent taking me out?’

‘One alpha should be fine,’ said Regris, pulling up a map of the base. ‘Come on, we’ll escort you, make sure to get all the others out of your way.’

‘That’d be great. I don’t know how I’d do it otherwise.’

‘Like we said, omegas have to stick together,’ said Ilun. ‘Regris, do you know where he is?’

‘Yes, and lucky for us, he’s in solo training. Let’s go.’

 

* * *

 

The trip to the training rooms was easier than Keith had expected, but the further he went the more it became apparent that Regris had sent some kind of message warning all the alphas between the viewing lounge and their destination to get out of their way. The Blades might not have been physically there, but he could still smell their lingering scents, and kept finding his head turning to follow them. If Regris and Ilun hadn’t had a firm grip on each of his arms he might not have made it without veering off the path.

But make it he did, and Regris opened the door to one of the smaller solo training rooms with a whispered, ‘We’ll come and get you if your heat signature rises above 433. Good luck!’ Then he pushed Keith in.

Keith staggered a moment, and of course the first thing he registered was the scent, but it was a _single_ scent, rich and clean and so bright he felt that if he closed his eyes he would see its owner in coloured tracks across his mind.

Sight kicked in a half-tick later. Vrek was fighting the simulation with a heavy, machete-like blade, his fur dense with sweat, chest heaving with measured breaths, and clearly concentrating so hard he hadn’t seen - or smelled - Keith come in.

‘End simulation,’ said Keith. The hologram faded away and Vrek’s nostrils flared, but he looked admirably calm as he turned around.

‘Keith,’ he said. ‘Can I help you? Are you hurt?’

‘Actually yeah, I mean - yes, you can help me and no I’m not hurt. I - I just need to talk to you, if that’s OK.’ Oh god, I’ve embarrassed myself already, thought Keith, desperately trying not to look at the darkened fur on Vrek’s neck, or think how much he wanted to bury his nose in it.

‘Absolutely. Fire away.’ Vrek sheathed his knife and sat down on the training room bench, indicating the space beside him.

Keith sat down and tried not to breathe. ‘Well, I… I thought about what everyone said and I went through that list and asked a bunch of the omegas on the base, and eventually I decided, uh. If it’s not too much trouble. Please-will-you-help-me-with-my-heat?’

The last sentence was all blurted out, almost one word before his brain could pull it back, but it was very clear that Vrek caught every single syllable. His ears pricked up, his eyes widened - in general, it looked as though he’d just been hit in the face with a plank.

He opened his mouth, shut it again, and then, with a smile like a slow sunrise, said, ‘I… well, of _course_ I will, I’d be _honoured_ to, but - are you _sure_? Why me?’

Vrek was a lot more remarkable when he smiled, thought Keith, and said, ‘A few reasons. Like, all of the omegas I asked mentioned you, even though Regris is the only one that’s actually shared a heat with you. You’re a medic so you’ll know if anything goes wrong. But the most important one is that I realised that of all the unbonded alphas on the base, you are the only one who hasn’t been pestering me about my heat since I got here.’

‘Oh. No. I didn’t think it would be productive,’ said Vrek.

Keith put his head on one side. ‘Any particular reason?’

‘You struck me as a very private, introverted person who would regard any excess calls on your attention as annoying more than anything else, and who would resent anyone pushing you to choose against your own desires. You choose or you don’t choose, and there’s very little I could do to affect that.’

‘But you’re so _calm_ … Ilun and Regris say I stink, can’t you smell me?’

Vrek laughed. ‘In the medical profession you learn very quickly to keep a straight face no matter what your actual thoughts might be. Yes, Keith, I can smell you. You are making it a little hard to think.’

‘Oh.’ Keith didn’t say anything for a moment. ‘Uh. Sorry. Are we supposed to… do anything now? Is this gonna take you away from your job?’

‘I need to delegate deputies, yes, but everyone will understand.’ Vrek looked down, apparently a little embarrassed. ‘And I realise this may be an unpleasant prospect for you, but if I am to be your alpha for this heat then I need to scent you. So that the others understand who you have chosen. It will make them easier to deal with, though.’

‘Scent me?’ said Keith. ‘Will it hurt? Ulaz’s document didn’t say anything about it hurting.’

‘Well, no, but it’s a little intimate. It can be slightly awkward for unbonded pairs. Like a kiss.’

Understanding dawned on Keith’s face. ‘Do you… think I should have chosen someone else?’ he said suspiciously.

Vrek shifted uncomfortably. ‘Of course not! I’m honoured, I really am, just… I suppose I’m a little confused. There are alphas on this base much stronger, higher ranked, better looking, more virile, better fighters-’

Keith put a hand on his shoulder, ignoring the heated feeling under his fingers. ‘Every omega I asked recommended you. Regris says you’re a prodigy. Ilun said you were kind even in full rut. Of course I want you, and you should stop talking such crap about yourself. You sound like Shiro.’

Vrek blinked at him. ‘I… I do?’

‘Yeah, you remind me of him, actually. So you’re going to be my alpha for a little while, that means we’re going to have sex, so I need to get used to the idea of you touching me. Of course you can scent me. How do we do this?’

Vrek coughed awkwardly. ‘Well, uh, there’s a few different ways, it’s all about the scent glands and getting you to smell as much like me as possible. The _least_ intimate way-’

‘Fuck that,’ said Keith. ‘You smell heavenly. If you told me I had to lick your fur clean right here right now I would, that’s how good you smell.’

‘Quiznak.’ Vrek’s eyes widened. ‘Keith, you’re going to bring your heat on early. Alright. Come here.’ He reached out and drew Keith closer - Keith immediately wrapped his arms around the lean figure and buried his face in the side of his throat. Vrek froze a moment and pried him back a bit. ‘Keith. Listen to me. I need you to promise me you won’t bite.’

Keith nodded. ‘No bonding, I’ll be good, I promise,’ he said.

‘Good boy.’ Vrek released him and Keith went back to inhaling the thick, heady scent rising from the neck gland. Vrek let him stay like that for a moment, gently massaging the curves of Keith’s throat with his palms, then turned him in his arms so he could reach with his mouth. He breathed him in and Keith shuddered.

‘You smell so, so good,’ he said into Keith’s ear. ‘It seems a shame to spoil it with my alpha smell.’

‘Do it,’ said Keith. ‘We both know I’ll be stinking the base out with omega heat in a few days anyway.’

Vrek chuckled. ‘Well, you have a point there,’ he said, and licked the gland. Keith groaned, unable to stop himself rocking up against Vrek - not to get friction to his dick, but for the glands on the insides of his thighs. Vrek caught his hips and steered him so that Keith was sitting astride Vrek’s lap, rubbing up and down against him as he sucked lightly on his throat.

When Vrek finally looked up, Keith gave a howl of disappointment, but when Vrek spoke to him, voice all calm and authority, he found himself mesmerised, hanging on every word.

‘No. Keith. I’m not going to mark you. I know that’s what you think you want but you’re far too close to your heat. I’m going to go with you wherever I can from now on, and if I can’t you know you still smell like me now, right?’

Keith nodded wordlessly, and Vrek tapped him lightly on the thigh. ‘No, tell me in words, Keith.’

‘Yes, Vrek, I smell like you.’ It was an amazingly reassuring thought. ‘Everyone’s going to know I chose you.’

Vrek smiled. ‘That’s right. Now get up. I need to shower and change if I’m to escort you around all day.’

Keith obeyed without thought - later, he would realise that one of the reasons a trustworthy alpha was paramount was because it was incredibly hard to _not_ obey his alpha. ‘I’ll wait here. Oh, wait, Ilun and Regris are waiting outside, I’d better let them know.’

‘You better had, yes.’

‘Vrek?’

‘Yes?’ Vrek stopped halfway to the shower room door.

‘Is it OK to ask…’

‘You can have anything it’s in my power to give you. That’s part of my job.’

Keith snorted. ‘Yeah, but you said kissing was uncomfortably intimate if you weren’t bonded, so-’

Vrek was beside him in a couple of strides. ‘If you want me to kiss you then that’s absolutely fine. I was only worried it would be too much for _you_.’

‘Oh. No. I’d rather not have my first heat feel like a medical procedure.’

‘Of course.’ Vrek was smiling, and then his arms were around Keith and he was kissing him - the scent made Keith dizzy but the kiss - was it even more because it was his alpha, even temporarily? - was almost too much for him. When it ended he was clinging tight to Vrek, listening to the hammering of his own heartbeat. ‘Feeling alright?’

‘Yeah, yeah, fine, that was… amazing,’ said Keith, curling his fingers into the front of Vrek’s uniform and trying to pretend that he could stand on his own. Luckily, Vrek held onto him until he really could do that, and then went off to take a shower.

It was very clear from Ilun and Regris’ faces when he opened the door that he didn’t need to tell them anything.

‘Uh. He said yes,’ said Keith, at a loss for anything else to say.

‘Of _course_ he said yes,’ said Regris. ‘Why would he have said no?’

‘Well… It’s got to be a big responsibility, right? And I’m going to be taking him away from his work, he’s the stand-in head medic, so he has a lot to do, doesn’t he?’

‘It’s a big responsibility, you’re right,’ said Ilun. ‘Has nobody told you yet that your first heat is a _huge_ honour for the alpha that you ask to help you with it?’

‘Sure, but-’

‘You have trusted him with your health, wellbeing and dignity until the end of your heat. Any alpha who betrayed the trust you have placed in him would be publicly flogged if he was _lucky_.’

Keith stared at her, eyes wide. ‘Are you serious? Is this a Blade thing?’

‘No,’ said Regris. ‘It’s a Galra thing. In the old days an alpha who willingly let his omega be harmed rarely even got to trial - generally they’d be found dead. Not that they’d _really_ redeem their honour that way but at least it’d mean they’d tried.’

‘That’s taking it _way_ too far,’ said Keith.

Regris shrugged. ‘Maybe you’ll think differently in a movement or so. Personally I find it reassuring. If your alpha isn’t honourable, then what do you have? Not all Galra customs are inherently despicable.’

‘That’s very noble of you to say, Regris.’ The door hissed shut behind Vrek and he placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder. ‘Thankyou both for bringing him here.’

‘You know me, I can be noble and forgiving sometimes,’ said Regris. ‘Quiznak, you should have no problem now, Keith, you definitely smell like Vrek, for sure.’

Keith realised he was leaning against Vrek and stood up straight. ‘Yeah, I know, I feel like maybe I should be more mad about that but for some reason I just feel really happy.’ Regris and Ilun laughed at that, and at the shocked expression on Vrek’s face. ‘What? What’s funny?’

‘Vrek, you tell him,’ said Ilun. ‘Me and Regris have work to do now baby omega here is safely in the hands of his alpha.’

‘Please don’t call me baby omega.’

‘Either way. See you later! Bye!’

Ilun and Regris walked off in the direction of the computer labs, leaving Vrek and Keith alone. Keith leaned in against Vrek’s shoulder again - it seemed the most casual thing in the world, in the slack circle of his arm, and said, ‘So are you going to tell me what to do, alpha?’

The arm around him tightened its grip for a moment, then Vrek said, ‘Do you want me to? Also you should know that if you call me that in public it’s a bit…’

Keith waited while Vrek searched for words, then looked up at him. ‘Like I’d be flirting with you in public? Or would it be more like I was talking dirty to you in public?’

‘Somewhere between the two,’ said Vrek, nodding.

Keith considered, then smiled. ‘Would you like it if I did?’

He watched Vrek’s throat, the muscle movement as he swallowed and breathed out. ‘Yes,’ said Vrek. ‘I would.’

‘Then please tell me what to do. You know I’m new to all this. I need to be able to have someone competent make all the decisions for me, now I’ve made the really big one.’

Vrek smiled and nodded. ‘I can absolutely do that for you. Come here.’

He didn’t kiss Keith, but he hugged him tight, a firm column of muscle and bone and sinew that seemed in that moment that he could shield Keith from anything and everything. Keith clung to the front of Vrek’s uniform and, for once, allowed himself to feel vulnerable.

Then Vrek kissed the back of his head and said, ‘Alright, we’re going to go to the kitchen. There should be a few alphas there but it’ll be fine.’

‘I smell like you, it’ll be fine,’ said Keith.

‘Exactly,’ said Vrek, smiling. ‘Don’t panic, stay close to me, I promise I won’t make you stay there longer than it takes to get food.’

‘Yes, alpha.’

There was a little hitch in Vrek’s breath. ‘You know you don’t have to call me that when there’s nobody to see.’

Keith grinned. ‘Worth it to see the look on your face.’

‘You’re a brat, is what you are. Kolivan was right about that. Now come; let’s go.’ He held out his hand and Keith took it, no longer at all afraid of facing any of the alphas on the base.

‘So why don’t you tell me what they were laughing at?’ he said as they set off.

Vrek looked away. ‘You… you said you felt only irrational happiness. I… hesitate to explain this to you now since it might make things awkward-’

‘I asked you to be my alpha because I thought you might be honest with me, come _on_. Just tell me, Vrek. Alpha. I can take it.’

‘Well.’ Vrek coughed. ‘Such an excess of dopamine in response to an alpha at this stage indicates a strengthened bonding response.’

Keith scrutinised Vrek’s face, turned a little away from him, as he analysed the overly clinical words. ‘OK, let me get this straight,’ he said finally. ‘It’s like “love at first sight” only more… _chemical_?’

This time, Vrek turned his head to look down at Keith from his vantage point of about six inches taller. ‘Are you implying that Galra don’t know how to love one another? But yes. It implies the beginnings of, I suppose, a love bond. Ilun and Regris were giggling because it is the sort of thing that happens all the time in those Olkarian romantic comedies she likes so much and Regris pretends he doesn’t. But I can see by your face you understand.’

‘Oh, one hundred per cent. Crystal clear. I get the message. I just don’t know what to do with it.’ Keith stared ahead for a second, then looked back up at Vrek. ‘Does this happen a lot?’

‘All the time. And it mostly resolves in a heat or a rut, and then both parties return to business as usual.’

Keith relaxed. ‘Right. Good to know. I can deal with that.’ Now they had got closer to the kitchen, and Keith stopped short. ‘Oh, god. Vrek, I can smell them. There’s like nine alphas in there.’

Vrek drew himself up to his full height. ‘Then all those alphas will know. Keith. Look at me.’

Keith looked at the only sure thing in the sea of smells leaking through the door.

‘Good. Now, when we open that door the scents will be worse. I’m going to scent you again. Is that alright?’

Keith nodded vigorously. ‘ _Please_ , alpha.’

‘Show me your neck.’

Keith obeyed without hesitation and this time there was no gentle rubbing or licking - Vrek pulled him tightly into his arms and sucked hard on the jugular gland for a few seconds. Keith moaned and bit down on the air, his teeth sharpening and his eyes yellowing for a moment, and he was shivering when Vrek pulled him back enough to cradle his face in the base of Vrek’s throat. Gradually, he stopped shaking and his breathing evened out.

‘Alright?’ said Vrek.

‘Yeah,’ said Keith against Vrek’s pulsepoint.

‘Stand up for me, then.’ Keith did so, steady and calm enough to return Vrek’s smile. ‘What can you smell?’

‘You, alpha,’ replied Keith, sure of it as he had ever been of anything.

‘And if we go in there and it becomes too much, what will you do?’

‘Focus on you.’

‘Perfect. Now you especially need to eat and I know I’m hungry, so it’s time to go in. Are you ready?’

‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’

Vrek shook his head. ‘That’s not the answer I want, Keith. Are you ready? Do you need to go to your room and have me fetch you food?’

Keith hesitated. The thought was tempting. But he shook his head. ‘No. I have to at least try. I’m ready.’

‘Alright.’ Vrek took his hand and opened the door.

Thirteen people were staring at the door, clearly had been for some time, and the scents hit Keith like a wall. But he turned his head towards Vrek and inhaled, and then the prevailing scent was of Vrek - he could still smell all the others, and they were powerful, but now none of them mattered nearly as much.

Oh wow, and Vrek was glaring imperiously around the room like a slighted emperor, the gazes of the other alphas were actually dropping guiltily as he met them, that was hotter than it had any right to be.

Ganda was muttering something to one of the other alphas and everybody, including Keith, jumped when Vrek snarled at her, teeth bared and eyes blazing, ‘ _What_ did you say about my omega? Come on, say it out loud so I can hear it.’

‘Nothing, really, nothing!’ said Ganda, hands up. ‘I just said you’d have your work cut out with him, but only ‘cause we’ve never had a half-human here before!’

Vrek narrowed his eyes at her, then turned away. ‘That had better be all,’ he snapped, then dropped his arm around Keith’s shoulders.

Keith cuddled up against him and murmured, ‘I don’t know why but that little display was sexy as hell. Especially the part where you got all snarly and called me _your_ omega.’

Vrek laughed. ‘Oh, do you like that? I can accommodate that.’ Then he raised his voice a bit and said, ‘Keith, go get us breakfast. I’ll take care of the drinks and then we’ll get out of here.’

Keith nodded smartly. ‘Yes, alpha,’ he said, and jogged off in the direction of the bowl cupboard. Nobody stopped either of them, but he was uncomfortably aware of the stares and the knowledge that everyone would be talking about it once they were gone - better to be gone as soon as possible, really.

But Vrek was talking to someone else - and yes, that was an alpha - in the clipped tones of absolute authority. When Keith stepped in close to him he wrapped an arm round his waist and pulled him in tight against his side, but didn’t break eye contact.

‘Danit, I need you, Keenwar and Segrani to take over medical for me, as you can see I’ll be indisposed for the next movement at least.’

Danit, a rangy alpha who Keith would have guessed was maybe a little older than Ulaz, let his gaze drop to Keith for a second, then focussed on Vrek again. ‘Understood. We’ll make sure nobody needs to call on you.’

Ilun had recommended Danit, thought Keith. So had at least two of the others. If he’d decided differently he could have been standing here with Danit’s arm around him, and they looked like strong arms. He turned towards Vrek, enough to see his face and breathe him in a little. No, he’d made the right choice.

‘I’m sure you’ll keep everything as Ulaz would expect to find it,’ said Vrek, then he looked down at Keith and smiled. ‘There, now we can go.’

‘Thankyou, alpha,’ said Keith, triggering a faint murmuring from their audience and surprisingly finding himself maliciously satisfied about it. But before he could dwell on it too long, Vrek had steered him out of the kitchen, along some of the corridors of the base where Keith had never been before and eventually into a small lounge area with a few doors leading off it.

Keith looked around, bewildered. ‘Where are we?’

‘This is the medic’s lounge area. I thought we should have somewhere relatively quiet to go which isn’t either of our rooms. We can still expect Danit, Segrani and Keenwar, but Danit and Segrani know how to behave and Keenwar is an omega.’

‘I know, he was one of the ones who recommended you,’ said Keith, putting his bowls down on the table in the middle of the room.

Vrek’s brows went up. ‘Really? I’ve never shared a heat _or_ a rut with Keenwar.’

‘Yeah, that’s what he said, but he said you were an absolute professional with an excellent bedside manner, who could be relied on to keep your head in a crisis.’

‘Oh, that’s… nice of him. That’s very nice of all the people you asked, actually.’

Keith just grinned. ‘Yeah, they all seem to think you’re a pretty great guy.’

Vrek stood there, processing this for a moment, then he shook himself a little and sat down beside Keith. ‘Anyway. I’m proud of you, you did wonderfully in there.’

‘I was concentrating on you the entire time.’

‘Just like you were meant to. Well done, my omega.’

Keith grumbled and shuffled closer. ‘You’re gonna send me into early heat if you keep calling me that, alpha.’

Vrek laughed and hugged him briefly around the shoulders. ‘We can talk about that later. In the meantime eat your food, that’s an order.’

Of course, Keith scrambled to obey.


	4. Keith and Vrek's Home Makeover Show

The next two quintents were mostly spent in the medic’s lounge, with Keith insisting that Vrek catch up on Boh-Be-Bu Boo-Bee-Bii and Vrek being performatively protective whenever the other alpha medics were around, mostly for Keith’s entertainment and delight. Keith thought that maybe after this was over he’d have to find them and apologise, but holy shit, he was enjoying it in the moment.

They trained together, studied together, ate together, and when they weren’t together, Keith found himself feeling so lonely it was almost a physical ache. He walked up behind Regris in a corridor and Regris said, ‘Hi, Vrek!’ and then turned around, surprised - but not for long. ‘Oh, Keith. Wow, you smell _just like him_. You must be right on top of nesting stage, huh?’

Keith ignored him. ‘He’s gone to give Kolivan a briefing. Regris. Just tell me, is it normal to feel this… _bad_ right now?’

‘He’s not here and you’re lonely, right? Of course it’s normal. Your alpha is missing. Go nest or something, it might make you feel better.’

Keith nodded and went back to his room, but it was already spotless and bleak as a chain hotel, so he just sat on the floor hugging his knees and waited for Vrek to page him.

In the evenings, Vrek would deliver him to his bedroom door and Keith found himself fighting an increasing urge to invite him in. But it wasn’t time, so he suppressed it, and instead wore himself out fucking his hand to the completely irrational mental image of Vrek fucking him _and_ fighting off every other alpha in the base at the same time.

 

* * *

 

On the morning of the third quintent, Keith woke up and realised that he couldn’t possibly bring Vrek in here. He tried to make his bed properly but there was no saving the fact that the room was so minimal, he’d not been here long enough to have any personal touches - not that his room in the CastleShip was much better, but did that just mean he was a terrible nester?

When the chime came from his door comm, he was picking bits of lint up from the floor and trying to make sure that things were at least _clean_ , and he jumped a mile.

‘Don’t come in!’ he yelped, activating the comm.

‘Keith? Is everything alright?’ came Vrek’s voice. ‘Are you hurt?’

‘No! I mean I’m fine! But you can’t come in, it’s… it’s not _ready_!’

‘Ohh.’ There was a short pause, and then Vrek said, ‘Keith, has the nesting stage begun?’

‘Yeah, but there’s nothing in here to nest _with_! It’s not gonna be good enough!’

Another pause, then a smile in Vrek’s voice when he said, ‘Would you accept my help?’

That brought Keith up short. He stared at the closed door for a moment, then walked up and opened it, stepping right into Vrek’s arms. ‘I’d really like that,’ he mumbled into Vrek’s shoulder. ‘Thanks.’

‘You’re very welcome,’ replied Vrek into Keith’s hair. ‘Now let me show you something.’

They stepped into Keith’s room and Vrek pushed Keith gently back against the wall, then pressed a very non-obvious switch just below the door comm. All at once, most of the floor slid back, revealing a shallow oval pit, about nine feet long, with padded base and sides. Keith stared at it.

‘Huh, I sorta thought that switch was for the air conditioning. Do… _all_ Galra bedrooms have those? Don’t they get funky?’

‘Most modern Galra bedrooms have them in some capacity, yes. What does “funky” mean?’

‘It means, uh... oh. Unsanitary, is what it means. Isn’t there a sanitation risk what with the upholstery and all the, well, the bodily fluids.’

‘Oh, I see.’ Vrek shook his head. ‘I can see where you’d be concerned, but actually all heat-friendly upholstery and bedlinen is hydrophobic, and see here?’ He stepped into the pit and lifted the mattress, revealing a grille underneath. ‘After the heat we simply hose it down with disinfectant solution.’

‘You must get through _so much_ disinfectant solution.’

‘Less than you’d think. After this we use it for hosing down ship parts, since all traces of DNA and scent have been killed by then.’

‘Economical, I like it,’ said Keith. He turned to Vrek. ‘So you once said it was your job as my alpha to get me anything in your power to give. Is it in your power to get me extra bedding?’

Vrek laughed. ‘Keith, you have a stipend of extra bedding for your heat. And yes, if it isn’t enough I can get you more. Come on, let’s go to requisitions and you can choose what you think you’ll need.’

 

Requisitions duty was apparently one of the more boring jobs on the base - the Blade currently behind the desk was slouching with his chin propped up in one hand, attention focussed on the screen in front of him.

Keith craned his neck to look and then said, ‘Oh, hey, Lastor - is that Empire’s Dancingest Champions? Lance loves that.’

Lastor closed the screen and sat up defensively - his job had suddenly got a whole lot more interesting. ‘Does he really?’ he croaked, coughed and tried again in a much more normal voice. ‘Uh. Sorry, you startled me, I’ll have to work on my shock training. Good morning! We’ve been wondering when you’d show up here.’

‘We?’ Keith glanced at Vrek, who just shrugged.

‘The Blades in general. We’ve been having this desk staffed only by omegas and betas for the past four quintents just in case.’

‘That’s… thoughtful?’ said Keith. ‘Or is it normal?’

‘Can it not be both?’ said Vrek.

Keith didn’t have an answer to this, so Lastor just stood up. ‘Let’s get you two all stocked up.’ He reached down behind him and when he walked around the desk he was towing a fairly large hovering trunk, which he handed off to Vrek. ‘This way.’

 

Of course the room where all the nesting materials were kept was big, and stocked floor to ceiling with pillows, cushions, blankets and bedspreads of all varieties. The base had fifty Galra and Galra hybrids on it, most of whom went into either heat or rut several times a decaphoeb. Keith just wasn’t expecting so much _choice_ . He certainly wasn’t expecting _colour_.

‘This…’ he said, holding out a blue and white striped sheet.

‘It’s hydrophobic, anti-static - I recommend anti-static because your alpha has such fine fur - extra soft- Vrek, why is he looking like that?’

Vrek shook his head. ‘I have no idea,’ he said, but he stepped close to Keith. ‘Keith. Do you want it? You can have it if you like. Is there something wrong with it?’

Keith was clutching the sheet to his chest now, looking agonised. ‘Why do you have colours? I thought everything would be white or grey, but you have… _patterns_.’

‘A lot of people feel it makes for a better, more homelike nest,’ replied Lastor.

‘I don’t want it,’ said Keith. ‘It’s too familiar. I don’t want to be thinking about Earth while… yeah, anyway.’

Lastor took the sheet back, and Vrek wrapped an arm around him. They left, eventually, with a couple of large comforters, a bedspread and a heap of pillows, all in white, and a stack of cushions in various shades of grey, black and red. When they got back to Keith’s room, he went to unload the trunk but Vrek stopped him.

‘Keith. It’s alright to miss your home planet.’

‘I know _that_ ,’ said Keith. ‘Vrek. _My alpha_. What am I not getting through to you? Yes, I might have been scared before but this heat thing is clearly happening now and I’m _glad_ it’s happening with you. I’m not scared now. We’re going to kick this heat’s ass and I don’t want to be homesick at any point while it’s happening. Focus on you, remember? That’s what I intend to do.’

If Vrek’s face wasn’t covered in fur he might have been seen to be flushed, but his eyes were wide and his ears held forward - Keith had time to think of a giant purple space cat before there was a hand on his throat and another at the small of his back and he was being kissed as if Vrek would never kiss anyone ever again. Keith shut his eyes and tried to push up into the kiss _and_ push against the hand on his dorsal scent gland, swearing mentally that once the nest was built and they were both out of their clothes he was going to make Vrek go over all seven glands and lick them till they were raw.

Oh yeah, the nest wasn’t ready. He kissed Vrek again, just for good measure, then pulled away and went to investigate the contents of the trunk. When Vrek didn’t help him he looked up questioningly, and grinned when he saw his alpha undeniably admiring his backside.

‘Like what you see?’

‘Oh, yes,’ said Vrek. ‘As do a great many other alphas on this base, so I’m a very lucky Galra. Anyway. You unpack, I am going to fetch breakfast. I will not be long.’

‘You better not, you promised to help me with this and Regris told me what that means so I don’t want you taking it back.’ Keith flashed Vrek a playful smile which, to his surprise, was returned full power.

‘I shouldn’t dream of it. I’ll be hardly any time at all.’

 

Vrek was as good as his word - he was barely away ten doboshes, but in that time, Keith had unpacked the trunk, added the sheet, bedspread and pillow from the bed to the pile, and replaced them with the fresh bedspread and a couple of cushions. He was busy tucking his bedsheet over the mattress when Vrek came in, and was busy enough that he didn’t look up the first time Vrek said his name.

‘Keith,’ Vrek tried again, a little firmer this time. ‘Stop that and look at me.’

Keith obeyed as if hypnotised. Vrek was standing in front of the closed door holding a couple of bowls of protein mash and with two bottles of vitamin drink under his arm, and Keith felt absolutely no inclination to get to his feet whatsoever.

Vrek didn’t ask him to. Instead he sat down on the edge of the nest and handed Keith a bowl and a bottle. ‘Take a break,’ he said. ‘No more nesting until both of those are empty.’

Suddenly, Keith was gripped by a sense of urgency - what if it wasn’t ready in time? What if he couldn’t make it good enough in time? ‘But-’

‘I said eat,’ said Vrek, and Keith flushed and bent his head over his bowl. Vrek had to tell him to slow down before he was done, but after what seemed like the longest mealtime of Keith's life, both bowl and bottle were finally empty.

‘Done!’ said Keith.

‘Perfect,’ said Vrek, dumping all the used tableware in the transporter-scrubber that would take it to the kitchen. ‘Now, my omega, what does this nest need?’

‘Help me lay out these comforters,’ said Keith, standing up and seizing the top one from the pile. ‘I just wish we could do something about the lighting in here.’

‘The lighting?’ said Vrek, taking the other end of the comforter and helping Keith spread it out. ‘What's the matter with it?’

Keith pretended to be very engrossed in the other comforter. ‘Nah, it’s fine, forget I said it. I can deal.’

‘No, I want to know, Keith. How do you know if it's not something I can fix?’

Keith grimaced and sat down. ‘It's… the wrong colour. Too purple and too cold.’

Vrek put down his end of the comforter and went to sit beside Keith, their hips almost touching. ‘Sol is a yellow star, isn’t it?’ Keith just nodded. ‘You know the light in here can be any colour you want? Not just during heat?’

Keith looked up. ‘Seriously?’

Vrek nodded. ‘Seriously. A lot of the half-Galra here have all sorts of colour light in their rooms. Vortz has blinding green for two point three quintents and then total darkness for the same because his father’s planet is unlivable even by Galra standards.’

‘Wow.’ Briefly, Keith wondered what Regris had for personal lighting, and whether Pidge could get the same feature in the CastleShip, but there were more urgent issues to hand. ‘So can we deal with this now?’

‘Absolutely.’ Vrek stood up and pulled him to his feet. He took Keith’s hand and pressed it to the wall. There was a hum, and a clear bluish screen hovered in the air in front of them. ‘This is actually the best time for you to learn of this, although I'm surprised you weren't told before.’

‘They sort of _did_ ,’ said Keith, staring at his hand in bewilderment. ‘That’s _never_ worked before.’

‘Ah. That’s possibly because you hadn't gone through heat before, and therefore weren't secreting enough scent through your palmar glands for our system to properly register you.’

‘Oh.’ Keith sniffed his hand. ‘I still… smell like me.’

Vrek grinned. ‘Only moreso. Now, the lights?’

‘Yeah, the lights. Oh, god, all this is in Galra. How come? Everything everyone sends me on my signature gets translated into English.’

‘That’s just because you're not properly aligned yet. Touch here, here, here and here, then swipe across here and hold your palm on the circle until it finishes scanning.’

Keith followed the instructions, and the scan took rather less time than he’d expected - and then all the incomprehensible, angry-looking Galran gibberish resolved itself into English. A word that had looked like it might be a bomb detonation now just said, ‘LIGHTS’. When Keith pressed it it revealed a series of settings and sliders that let him micromanage the lighting in his room as much as he liked.

‘Having fun?’ said Vrek after a little while.

Keith looked up. He'd almost forgotten Vrek was there. ‘Maybe,’ he said a little guiltily. ‘Sorry, I'm nearly there.’

All the guilt was swept away in the warmth of Vrek’s smile, the edges of his face softened by the new yellowish twilight that wasn't quite right, but _nearly_. ‘Take your time,’ he said. ‘I’m going to go out for supplies. Do you need anything in particular?’

Keith looked around the room and shrugged helplessly. ‘String lights?’

Vrek laughed. ‘I'll do my best.’

‘Don't be long.’

‘Never.’

It took everything Keith had not to chase after him and drag him back, because no matter how he wanted to, it still wasn't time, and he had to prepare.

 

* * *

 

When Vrek returned, the room was bathed in golden light, reminiscent of a desert sunset on Earth. He set down the hovering trunk and stared at Keith, looking a little stunned.

Keith avoided his gaze, and said, ‘Please just say something, Vrek. Don't just stare at me like I'm some kind of bizarre zoo animal.’

‘I apologize.’ Vrek dropped his gaze. ‘I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. But this is clearly the light by which you are meant to be viewed, Keith. You look _incredible_.’

Keith tried not to look as though he was pleased, and mostly failed. ‘It’s easier on my eyes. Are you sure you’re comfortable, though? This is almost the exact opposite of the rest of the base.’

‘I will be fine,’ replied Vrek. ‘Galra are nothing if not adaptable. Oh, and I brought you something.’ He reached into the trunk and, from among the protein pouches and bottles of vitamin drink and other mysterious objects that Keith preferred not to contemplate at this point, produced…

‘Oh my god. It's a set of string lights. Vrek, you know I was mostly joking about that, right?’

‘Yes, but you've been spectacularly easy to please so far, so I thought I'd push myself slightly for you. But Lastor says these are the only ones on the base, so we have to take care of them.’

Keith took the string of lights from Vrek, staring at them as if he'd seen a ghost. ‘If anything happens to these I'll go to a swap moon and get some new ones myself.’ Then he threw an arm round Vrek’s neck, kissed him and said, ‘Come on, let's put them up!’

 

* * *

 

It took less time than Keith thought it would to finish the nest to his satisfaction, but then Vrek insisted that they go out and do some training while Keith could still mostly think straight. Keith grumbled about the idea while it was still just a suggestion, but he didn’t make Vrek order him to do it, and in the end admitted that he was glad for an excuse to release the energy crackling in every nerve.

‘OK, you win, this was a good idea,’ he said between heavy breaths, standing with his hands on his knees.

‘Do you feel better?’ said Vrek, passing a hand over Keith’s back.

‘Yeah, I- _shit_!’ Keith straightened up with a yelp. ‘ _What_ in the _fuck_ was _that_?!’

‘You know what that was, Keith.’ Vrek bit his lip. ‘It’s a lot more sensitive than yesterquintent, though.’

‘Dorsal gland, right, right, but that’s… you hardly even _touched_ me!’

‘I know. Let me see your hands.’ Keith mutely held out his hands and Vrek inspected the palms for a moment. ‘You know, I do believe your markings are starting to come in.’

‘My markings,’ said Keith flatly. ‘No, wait, I know this one. Look, can we talk about it back at the nest? I know I stink but right now I don’t care. I’m starting to hate this horrible sweaty spysuit so let’s just move this party on to the next stage.’

Vrek looked surprised for a moment, then he smiled. ‘Of course. Let’s go home, my omega.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I know I'm evil. They get it on next chapter, I promise. Also on *average*, Galra and Galra hybrids have seven primary scent glands each - left and right jugular, left and right palmar (Keith's continue further up his arm than would normally be expected), left and right femoral, and dorsal. Keith actually has more than the usual, but we'll find out about those soon enough.


	5. The Naked Time

The journey back to his room was longer than it had any right to be - if Keith didn’t know better, he’d suspect that the labyrinthine corridors of the Marmora base got longer or shorter depending on exactly what Keith didn’t want. As soon as he stepped through the door he shed his uniform almost before the door closed, and it was only after he was completely naked that it occurred to him what he’d just done.

He looked down at himself - he looked no different, except that he was sweating a little, but then he couldn’t really see any of his own glands from here. ‘Huh. You know, I thought I’d be more hung up about getting naked than this,’ he said, and turned to face Vrek, who was standing with his suit pulled down to about shoulder-level, staring owlishly at Keith.

Keith knew that would bother him, normally. He’d always loathed being the centre of attention. He’d hated the communal Garrison showers, too, the only person whose presence there hadn’t bothered him had been Shiro, and Shiro never stared. But somehow Vrek seemed to have a pass.

He cocked his hip and said, ‘Are you coming or not? No clothes in the nest.’

‘Of course,’ said Vrek. He stripped down the rest of the way, revealing lean muscle covered with dense, fine, violet fur; lavender over the sides of his throat, inner thighs, lower back and palms where it covered his scent glands. Keith’s gaze dropped to between Vrek’s legs and he blinked. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘No, no, it’s fine,’ said Keith. I can take that, he thought. Bit of prep, I can take that, for sure. ‘I just wasn’t expecting it to be so… _bumpy_. Ulaz’s document didn’t really have any pictures.’

‘Really? I’m surprised.’ Vrek sat down in the nest and Keith curled up against his side. He hadn’t really noticed how hot he felt until he pressed his forehead against Vrek’s shoulder, and then he realised - he was burning up. And Vrek was deliciously cool. ‘The slick comes from those lumps. I’m surprised you don’t have them, actually.’

‘I thought the slick came from my slit.’ He wrapped his arm around Vrek’s waist and got a rapturously cool arm around his shoulders in response, and a hand stroking up and down his upper arm. ‘Please don’t stop doing that.’

‘Your- oh. You know, I have a feeling this will be an education in Terran bodily slang. But yes, the vulva does produce lubrication, but the penis does too. Usually.’

Keith groaned. ‘Look, Vrek. Before we start. Can we not with the medical terms. Feel free to teach me some Galran terms if you like.’ He reached down and ran a thumb along his dick. ‘This is my dick, my cock or my prick.’ Then he parted his legs a little and pushed a couple of fingers into himself. ‘This is my slit, my puss, my cunt or my hole, but then there’s also my asshole too but you probably think that’s my anus, don’t you.’

Vrek laughed breathlessly, watching the movement of Keith’s fingers. ‘I’ll use whatever words you like.’

‘Great. God damn, look at this, I’ve been dripping wet all week. You know humans usually do the cuddly stage afterwards, right?’

‘Oh, you’re definitely still in that stage,’ said Vrek. ‘I can tell, you’re still coherent.’

‘I’m trying to do it right, here. I feel… kind of hot and cold at the same time. It’s weird. All my glands are itchy. I mean, I’m itchy all over but I can _really_ tell where my glands are. Am I supposed to have only seven? I might be a bit weird, it feels like way more.’ Keith raised his arm and scratched madly at his armpit, and Vrek grabbed his hand.

‘Keith, don’t do that, you’ll take the skin off your chest.’ He slid his hands up under Keith’s arms and Keith groaned quietly and relaxed into his hold. ‘I think you do have markings coming through here. Is this a place humans routinely produce scent?’

‘We get sweaty there, yeah, if that’s what you mean. By that logic my feet and maybe the middle of my back too?’

‘Interesting.’ Vrek tipped Keith forward in his arms and inspected his back carefully. ‘It may be too early to tell but it does look a little like you do indeed have _two_ dorsal glands. Upper and lower. No wonder you smell so strong.’

‘Never thought I’d be anywhere where “hey, you stink” was considered a come-on,’ said Keith dryly.

Vrek chuckled. ‘But it’s a good smell,’ he said, running his nose down Keith’s spine. Keith’s breath hitched, and he moved back a bit towards Vrek. ‘Like fire, but not destructive fire. Smoky and spicy like a hearth, maybe.’

For some reason, that made Keith’s heart go thump to hear it, but also he was consumed with the sensation of having insects under his skin and sort of wanted to lie on his face while Vrek licked all his scent glands one by one. He was pretty sure he’d do it if he asked, too. Instead he crawled into Vrek’s lap and buried his nose in the soft curve of his shoulder. Vrek instantly wrapped all his limbs around him and that made everything feel a lot better.

‘You smell like disinfectant and sweat and spy suit,’ said Keith thickly. ‘But, uh, in a _really good_ way. Sorry. I don’t feel so good.’

Vrek chuckled and kept carding his fingers through Keith’s hair. ‘Don’t worry. This stage doesn’t last so long. Just keep telling me how you feel, alright?’

‘I _hate_ telling people how I feel.’

‘Yes, I noticed. I’d like you to try, though.’

‘Is that an order?’

The hand in Keith’s hair stilled for a moment. ‘No. It’s not an order, it’s just a request.’

‘Fuck.’ Keith huffed a breath of hot air over Vrek’s shoulder and felt an answering breath, cool against the back of his neck. ‘I wish you’d just order me. That’d make everything so much easier.’

‘Maybe later, if it becomes an issue. Why so eager to hand over control? This doesn’t seem like the man who hung onto his blade for so long at the Trial that his lion came to his defense.’

Keith shoved Vrek away and retreated to the other end of the nest, instantly regretting that he’d done it. The hot-cold feeling tripled, the itching spread to everywhere on his body and his glands felt actually painful, accompanied by an increasingly uncomfortable empty throbbing between his legs. When he moved, he could feel his thighs sliding wetly against each other and the sensation garnered nothing but disgust. He curled up, facing stubbornly away from Vrek.

‘Keith? Keith, I’m sorry… omega?’

Keith was aware of his ears actually trying to _prick up_ when Vrek called him that - another thing to add to the list of weird things to hate about his body - but he didn’t turn around.

Vrek had noticed, though. ‘Omega - I don’t want to call you that while you’re mad at me, Keith. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned the Trial. I should have realised it’d be a sore spot.’

There was a rustling sound, and then something square and flat, about the size of his palm, was being poked into Keith’s field of vision. He ignored it.

Vrek sighed. ‘It’s not a peace offering, Keith, it’s food. It’s good food, too, we only get it when we’re sick or on heat or rut, so you might as well take it.’ Silence, then Vrek said shortly, ‘Omega. Eat the enriched protein block, that’s an order.’

Keith took the block and bit it. ‘Is this… chocolate?’ he said, startled out of his sulk.

‘I don’t know what chocolate is,’ replied Vrek. ‘If it tastes like any Earth thing, that’s probably coincidence but it is sweeter than the protein mash.’

‘Chocolate’s a thing we have on Earth, we - well, we _used_ to have it, the real thing’s stupid expensive now but this does taste nearly like those Hershey’s Starlite bars I used to get with my allowance when I was a little kid.’

‘Good?’

‘It was terrible chocolate. But I _never_ thought I’d taste _anything_ even close to chocolate-flavoured ever again.’ The protein bar vanished, but Keith disappeared back into his huddle. Eventually he said, ‘Why do you keep mentioning the Trial?’

‘You were magnificent,’ said Vrek simply. ‘It preys on my mind somewhat.’ He sighed heavily, then said, ‘If we are to talk about this, I suspect we should do it _after_ your heat. And in the meantime I promise I won’t mention the Trial, or any of your companions, unless you raise the subject first.’

‘I can handle that.’ Keith might have protested longer but right now he was burning all over and only one thing would fix it. He uncurled and crawled into the welcoming circle of Vrek’s arms, relaxing all over as Vrek stroked hand over hand, from the nape of his neck to his tailbone. ‘Vrek?’

‘Yes?’

‘Do I just have to… sit here and let you fondle me or can I touch you back? What am I supposed to be doing here?’

Vrek’s mouth was buried in Keith’s hair so he felt Vrek smile rather than saw it. ‘You can do anything you want to. Explore all you like, I know you’re unfamiliar with Galra bodies.’

‘Is there any such thing as being familiar with Galra bodies?’ said Keith. ‘Seems you guys come in a pretty wide variety.’

‘Well, you might say I’m extremely standard.’

Keith raised his head and studied Vrek’s face carefully. ‘Did you just call yourself ordinary? _Boring_ , perhaps? Maybe even plain?’

‘Keith, I’m almost exactly a textbook type-two Galra, ask anyone on the base.’

‘Type-two?’

‘The other type is mostly hairless, like Ulaz or Kolivan.’

‘Right. Yes, anyway, my point is, even if I don’t get to give you orders, I don’t want to hear my alpha do himself down. It’s an insult to me and the choice I made. Do you think I make bad choices?’

Vrek was staring now, eyes wide and locked on Keith’s face. ‘No, Keith.’

‘No, _what_?’

This time, Vrek broke into a slow grin. ‘No, my omega.’

‘Damn right, my alpha,’ said Keith, and kissed him hard. Vrek tipped him over onto his back, opening his mouth into the kiss and stroking his hands up along Keith’s ribs, up his arms and threading their fingers together above his head. Keith arched up without thinking, locking his ankles together behind the small of Vrek’s back, and the world consisted only of the places where they touched, bright and hot and filling his senses with the spicy-sweet smell of heat.

‘My omega…’ murmured Vrek against Keith’s lips when they parted for breath.

‘ _Yes_ ,’ hissed Keith, eyes bright.

Vrek swallowed, and whatever he’d been thinking he rethought it. He released Keith’s hands and pushed himself up. Keith whined at the friction between them, and his eyes widened when Vrek reached down and collected a thick coating of slick on his fingertip.

‘Open your mouth, omega.’ Keith’s eyes were tracking Vrek’s hand, but they snapped to his face the second he said smartly, ‘No, eyes on me. Now, I said, open your mouth.’

Keith opened his mouth, gaze fixed on Vrek, who was watching Keith’s lips and tongue as he took the finger into his mouth and diligently sucked it clean. Vrek said something in Galran that even the translator didn’t pick up, and Keith smirked and let his eyes narrow a little.

‘How does it taste?’ said Vrek, clearly trying not to sound breathless, but not succeeding very well.

‘Interesting,’ said Keith. ‘Not bad, though.’ He hesitated. What the hell, might as well get this moving properly, and also see how much he could get Vrek worked up at the same time. This might even turn out to be fun. Keith let his gaze go down, and further down, and then back up to catch Vrek’s gaze. ‘Can I have some more, Alpha?’

This time he was rewarded by a despairing groan from Vrek. ‘You’re the pushiest omega I’ve ever met. Never change.’

‘And yet I love it when you order me around, isn’t that weird.’

‘Oh, fine.’ Vrek sat back on his haunches. ‘Suck my cock, omega. I want to see you get messy. I want to see how much you can fit in your mouth.’

‘Come down my throat?’ said Keith, arranging himself between Vrek’s knees.

‘If you’re good,’ replied Vrek.

He put a hand between Keith’s shoulderblades and another on the back of his head and Keith moaned, sagging with his head in Vrek’s lap for a moment before turning his attention to the task before him.

It was fairly momentous. If all Galra dicks were this size then Keith just had to hope he could accommodate - he’d last seen its like in porn, only without the lumps, so it wasn’t truly outlandish, but you heard stories. He leaned forward a bit and licked all the way from root to tip - it seemed to take forever, and filled his mouth with slick. It tasted a bit the way heat smelled, bright and sharp and rich, flooding every sense like opium.

Keith’s hand wrapped around the shaft, but only just, and it made his fingers slick so he slid them into the even wetter slit between Vrek’s muscular thighs and went back to licking over the leaking bumps. Vrek mumbled something and the hand in his hair tightened. Good, he was having an effect. He licked around the tip, judging the size and wishing he’d had more practice, and Vrek started rocking his hips just a little, breath coming in little gasps.

Keith looked up and grinned. ‘Nice, my alpha?’

Vrek scowled. ‘Yes, my omega, but we can’t have you stopping like this in the middle of a task. You’re a Blade of Marmora now.’

Keith beamed brilliantly at him, dizzy with exhilaration, and kissed him, so he could taste the slick on his lips, then dropped his head again, trailing a slick handprint down Vrek’s chest. As he wrapped his lips around the tip of Vrek’s dick he was rewarded with a gulp of breath and jolt of Vrek’s entire lower torso. Luckily he’d been ready for that, he simply wrapped both hands around the shaft and opened his mouth wide to take what he could.

In and out, gradually deeper with each stroke, breathing through his nose and paying close, close attention to his alpha’s movements. The slick helped. He was surprised when he managed to take Vrek further down the back of his throat than he’d thought he would, and by that time Vrek was on his back, kneading at Keith’s hair like a cat and begging him… Just begging, for nothing in particular, just whispered repetitions of, ‘ _Please, oh please, oh please…_ ’

And then he came, arching up with an almost-silent cry. Keith wasn’t ready and he choked, pale blue fluid coming out of his nose and dribbling down his chin. Vrek was there in a second, handing him a vitamin drink bottle and a cloth, all concern, but Keith’s face as he clung to him was all triumph.

‘You wanted a mess, right, alpha?’

Vrek laughed. ‘I did.’

‘And you came down my throat so I must have been good.’

He got a kiss this time, despite the lingering fluids clinging to his face, or possibly because of them. ‘You were amazing. Perfect.’

‘Good.’ Keith crawled up closer to Vrek, tangling their legs together. It got slick and jizz smeared over his hip but he barely noticed, he just knew he was hard as a rock and he had to have Vrek touching him, now. ‘I really hope you can get it up again fast.’

‘Getting close?’ said Vrek softly. ‘I can smell it on you. Don’t worry, once heat proper really starts, your proximity will make sure that we need only stop to eat and sleep until it’s all over.’

Keith laughed giddily into the curve of Vrek’s throat. ‘Oh, fuck, that sounds terrifying. Why do I want it so much? How long will it last, Vrek?’

‘You want it because you’re so close to your heat that I could push you there with some well-chosen words. And how long do your periods usually last?’

‘Three _days_ \- I mean, quintents? Oh, fuck me sideways. That wasn’t a request. I’m going to be so sore.’ But despite everything his logical brain was telling him, Keith couldn’t stop clinging to Vrek, stroking his fur, rubbing his dick and inner thighs on Vrek’s hip.

‘You’ll be maybe a little achey, but on my honour, you will be fine,’ said Vrek.

‘Yeah, well, _on your honour_ , can you just shove me over the edge, now?’ said Keith, wiping the sweat out of his eyes with the heel of his hand. ‘I’m sick of waiting for the other shoe to drop.’

‘Later you will have to tell me the origin of that phrase,’ said Vrek. Then his tone changed, and lost the gentle note that Keith hadn’t even realised had been in it up till now. Now he was all calm authority as he said, ‘Omega, lie on your back and spread your legs.’

Every worry, every doubt, every external motivation dropped out of Keith’s head and his world consisted of the nest, his alpha and his desire to obey him, be fulfilled by him, to please him. He barely even knew he was on his back before his head hit the pillows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we really get that E rating.
> 
> OK, just in case I forget to clarify it in the text, Keith has thirteen scent glands. L/R jugular, palmar, pectoral, femoral and plantar, then upper and lower dorsal, and then finally the sternum gland. He's a stinky boy when he's in heat, and that's not even counting secondary glands (there's a whole ton of those).
> 
> Incidentally I loathe every single term for female genitalia that exists. I just do. It's an autie word synergy thing and I still haven't come up with a word I like but these will do for the moment, I guess.


	6. Baby This Is It

He was burning, hot all over but especially between his legs. Then long, cool fingers scooped the sweaty hair out of his eyes he turned his head towards the hand, chasing the scent that was increasingly not so much a scent as a signal. Bright, cool, strong, sharp, calming, cleansing, _Alpha_.

He opened his eyes and did his best to focus on Vrek’s face even before he could complete the order to look at him, and was rewarded with a smile. ‘Good. You’re doing so well. Now. If you’re in pain or you feel something is wrong, I want to know. You have to tell me.’

Keith nodded. Vrek should have started touching him, why wasn’t he touching him? He whined and tried to rub the side of his neck against the hand on his forehead.

‘Omega. Listen to me. Tell me what you’re going to do.’

Keith’s forehead creased and he tried to think. He hadn’t been concentrating very hard. ‘If it hurts… I tell you?’

‘Very good. And remember, no biting.’

 _That_ , at least, he remembered as important. ‘No, Alpha.’ Then he reached up towards Vrek, leaning up from the bed. ‘Now _please_ , I… I need…’

Vrek put his hands firmly on Keith’s shoulders and pushed him back. ‘I said, lie down.’

Keith lay back, eyes big and dark and fixed on Vrek's face. ‘Please,’ he tried again, but the word dissolved into a ragged wail as two long fingers sank into him and a slick palm wrapped round his cock. He brought his knees up, trying to open himself up more, and heard Vrek chuckle.

‘Be calm, omega, you’ll get what you want.’

‘More,’ gasped Keith, pushing against Vrek's hands. ‘Fuck you. Fuck _me_.’

‘When you're ready,’ replied Vrek to a completely uncaring audience, carefully scissoring his fingers and using his other hand to still the pitching of Keith’s hips. Keith’s hand immediately went to his cock - Vrek pulled his hand free and Keith whined at the loss, then moaned when Vrek smeared his shaft with slick. ‘Don’t hurt yourself,’ he said, then plunged three fingers back into Keith’s heat.

‘Oh my god,’ gasped Keith, hand moving fast on his now-slick cock. ‘Don’t stop. Gonna, gonna…’

It took a moment more for Keith to come, bright-hot heat sensation spreading through every nerve from loins out. But then it didn't dissipate. If anything, it got _worse_. He was still hard, still wanting, feeling stupider than ever.

He gave a bitter sob of frustration. ‘Alpha. Alpha, please, come on, just give it to me, I'm strong, I promise, I won't break if you fuck me, please alpha, I need it…’

He was cut off by the kiss, and a hand in his hair gripping just tight enough to ground him a little.

‘You're panicking, omega. Focus on me.’

Keith nodded, looking at the careful, ordinary face of his alpha until whatever Vrek was searching for in his eyes satisfied him. This time, the kiss was gentle, almost fond, and a saner Keith would have been immediately defensive. This one only hung on tight.

‘You've been so patient,’ said Vrek. ‘I'm so proud. Now turn over, omega. Get on your hands and knees.’

‘Oh fuck yes, thankyou, finally,’ babbled Keith as he scrambled to obey. It barely needed the cool hand between his shoulders to make him press his face into the pillow and raise his hips, or the other hand parting his thighs, but Keith thought very fervently that he loved Vrek’s hands. When Vrek kissed down his spine, scooped a fat glop of slick out with sloppy fingers and shoved his tongue in alongside, he knew he loved Vrek's mouth too, but it still wasn't enough.

‘Vrek. Alpha. _Please_.’

Wet hands gripped Keith's thighs, thumbs digging into his femoral glands and he didn't care that tears were pouring down his cheeks. He only hoped, and when he felt something hard and blunt pushing at him he sobbed, ‘Please, yes,’ and tried to push back, but Vrek held him fast.

‘Slowly, omega,’ said Vrek. ‘You're doing so well. You look so good like that. You're making it hard for me not to go to fast but I don't want to ruin you.’

‘Do it,’ said Keith, still desperately trying to rut back onto Vrek's cock. ‘Wreck me. Make me a total fucking mess, tear me apart, I don't care, just fill me up.’

‘ _Omega_ …’ groaned Vrek, but he pushed forward, perhaps a bit faster and a bit harder than he'd meant to. Keith dug his nails into the pillow and cried out in ecstasy, then again in frustration when Vrek paused. When he spoke, it sounded like it was coming from between gritted teeth. ‘Quiznak… Keith, omega, are you hurt?’

‘No!’ snarled Keith, trying to twist to look over his shoulder. ‘I _told_ you, you made me _promise_ , I’ll say if it’s too much, don’t you trust me, alpha?’

Vrek blinked at him for a second, clearly taken aback. But he recovered fast. ‘In this… yes,’ he said, then before Keith had time to think what that meant, dug his fingers in hard enough to bruise Keith’s hips and started making short, fast thrusts, a little further every time.

Keith bit down on the pillow and keened, rocking back as far as Vrek would let him. There was a burn, yes, but it was nothing beside the all-encompassing sensation of being filled - and every time he thought there couldn’t possibly be any more, Vrek took him deeper, stretched him wider. Finally he was in to the hilt, to the astonishment of the part of Keith that seemed to be watching him from very far away - he hadn’t thought he could take that much, and he’d never felt that full in his life. He lay there panting and shaking and then realised that Vrek _hadn’t moved_.

That couldn’t happen. He tried to buck backwards, face screwed up in frustration, but Vrek simply held him there. Gradually, Keith became aware that he was being spoken to.

‘Omega. Keith. Omega, listen to me. Can you hear me, omega? I’m going to give you ten ticks to answer me and then I’m going to pull out. Omega, tell me you can hear me.’

‘Yeah,’ said Keith faintly. ‘’M OK. Feels good.’ Good, but not enough. ‘Don’t stop.’

Behind him, he felt Vrek relax, and a gentle hand pass over his back - he shivered all over in response. ‘I think we lost you for a moment there. Stay with me, omega.’

Keith nodded frantically. ‘Pl’s just move,’ he slurred. To his enormous relief, Vrek obeyed, slowly pulling nearly halfway out of him and then pushing back in. Keith yowled, clawed at the pillows and begged, ‘Faster, harder, I can take it!’

‘If I am to last long enough to give you anything worth knotting then we shall take whatever pace I choose,’ said Vrek, sounding strained. He made another stroke, this time a little faster, and a little further out. ‘Don't you want that, my omega? To be filled up by my seed, and my knot?’

It was a low blow, but Keith had totally forgotten about the knot, and now he remembered he wanted it more than anything. ‘Yes, I do, I do, I'm sorry,’ he sobbed, suddenly terrified that Vrek would pull away.

‘Hush, it's alright, there's no need to apologise.’ The hands on his hips were gone, replaced by an arm round his waist and gentle fingers scooping the hair out of his face and mouth. ‘I'm so proud of you.’

Keith thought he might have been about to say something, but then Vrek started to move, in an out in shallow, firm thrusts, and Keith could only make a winded, ‘ _Ooohhhh_ …’ He tried again, managed about half of Vrek’s name, and dissolved into garbled nonsense. The sensation of soft fingertips across his lips was a huge relief, and he opened his mouth to suck them in.

‘Don't.’ said Vrek, ‘Don't try to talk.’

Keith made a noise of acquiescence that turned into a desperate moan when Vrek sped up, and then a delighted howl when his thrusts finally gained strength and depth, pulling out almost completely and shoving Keith back with every push. Keith chased Vrek's fingers as they left a trail of drool across his cheek, only to hold his head steady against the mattress. His ears filled with the slick sound of skin on skin and his body rocked, and it was _glorious_.

‘Quiznak, omega, you're so good, just look at you, I want to knot you so badly, fill you up, make you mine, I’d be so good to you.’

‘Yes, yes, do it, I want it, I want you, please, yes, alpha, please…’ Keith distantly knew he was gabbling and didn't care. Finally Vrek had stopped treating him like he was made of wet tissue paper and it was the best feeling in the world. He didn't know why he'd ever been scared, everything good, everything he'd ever need, was right here in this nest.

He wasn't ready when Vrek came. The sudden tightening of arms around him, the slam of strong hips against his thighs, the flood of liquid heat that seemed to fill every part of him with fire. Then Vrek rolled them onto their sides, holding Keith tight against him and gasping, ‘Oh, omega. My omega, Keith, my omega,’ as his knot swelled.

Keith whined and writhed, unsure whether it would split him in two and yet completely sure that it was all he wanted in the world. While it was still swelling his senses overloaded and he went over the edge, screaming as the world went white and narrowed down to the knot.

When he was capable of as much thought as heat brain was allowing him, he realized that Vrek was still inside him, but now cradling him carefully, and for some reason he had a corner of the coverlet in his mouth.

He spat it out. ‘Buh?’

‘You tried to bite me,’ said Vrek calmly. ‘Luckily the angle was all wrong and you missed, but if you try that again I'll have to gag you.’

‘Oh,’ said Keith, not trying very hard to hide his bitter disappointment that his alpha didn't want him.

But Vrek just smiled sadly and kissed his sweat-soaked temple. ‘Don't look like that. You don't really want to bond with me, I'm temporary. I hope a good temporary, but still.’

Keith couldn't bring himself to ask. Then the arm around him tightened and lifted him a little, so that Vrek could reach past him to the trunk. He passed him a bottle of vitamin drink and pulled a cleansing wipe out of a pouch to clean them both off as best he could, and by the time Keith was done with the drink, the knot was deflated enough to let Vrek pull away.

Keith wasn't prepared for the way the slick sound rang in his ears, or how horribly, emptily lonely he felt all of a sudden, cold to his very core. Vrek gathered him into his arms and kissed him and it helped a little, but the word _temporary_ echoed through his brain and wouldn't be quieted.

‘Alpha. ‘M cold,’ he said.

‘I know, omega, it'll pass,’ said Vrek. ‘I need to do a little health check on you, is that alright? It'll only take a few ticks.’

Keith just nodded. Vrek retrieved a clear container from the trunk, and from it took out a narrow rod about the width of his finger. ‘Part your legs for me, Keith. Please.’

It was a request, but Keith obeyed anyway, feeling a little triumphant at the trickle of translucent blue that leaked down his thigh. Vrek dipped the rod into him, held it for a moment, then dropped it back into the container, which immediately presented a hologram screen.

‘Temperature 310 laslocks, that's high but not dangerous yet. The contraceptive is working. You seem to be handling heat well, no really adverse reactions at the moment. Well done, omega.’

Apart from the fact that he was doing well, most of this flew right over Keith's heat-addled head. He scooped some of the blue out from between his legs and, when he was sure Vrek was watching him, very deliberately licked his fingers clean.

Vrek watched him through this little display, little creases coming and going at the corners of his mouth. ‘Time again already? That's faster than I expected.’ He dropped the tester back in the trunk and loomed over Keith, one hand either side of his head. ‘I can tell I'm going to have my hands full with you.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They are going to have a *lot* to talk about later. Also it's increasingly likely there's going to be a sequel, because I hate loose ends.
> 
> Oh yeah if anyone thinks Sasaan's Shiro the Hero and the Hungry Chain was an influence for this they'd be right. You should read that, it's great.


	7. My Favourite Worst Idea

Keith went four more rounds before passing out in an exhausted, sticky heap across Vrek's chest, reeking of sweat and jizz and heat. Vrek tried to sit up, but Keith only whined and hung on tighter.

He fell back against the pillows, shushing Keith and combing his fingers through the damp black hair, and finally he relaxed and started to purr in his sleep. Vrek couldn't help but smile a little at that.

‘Look at you,’ he whispered. ‘So perfect - such a shame there's so much of this you’d probably hate.’  He tried to reach out towards the trunk again, doing his best to jostle Keith as little as possible, and finally managed to grab a couple of cleansing wipes. It wasn't as good as a proper vibration shower but Keith seemed like the type to hate being filthy - or at least, Vrek had always seen him functionally tidy, for all he seemed to care little about his appearance - so the least Vrek could do was clean them both off.

He'd just finished that when Keith started twitching and muttering in his sleep. Vrek hesitated for a moment, afraid to touch him, but Keith started grabbing at the air, muttering, ‘No… Don’t go… Come back…’ and Vrek was lost.

He was probably searching for the Black Paladin, he thought, as he gathered Keith into his arms and flipped the comforter over them both. But it didn't matter. Vrek would hold Shiro’s proper place and Keith could choose him when he was his right mind. With that, he dismissed all thoughts of the future and let the sound of Keith's purr drag him down into sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

He was woken pretty much the way he expected to wake - Keith was grinding on his hip and trying to suckle on his neck gland. Vrek moaned automatically, his body shivering to life from loins outwards, and then he realised that Keith wasn't even awake. Vrek hadn't seen anyone do that before but he knew it was common enough as to be almost expected. All at once he was aware that the fact that his only actual experience with heats was with Regris meant that practically speaking, he had hardly any real experience at all. Regris was an outlier and should not have been counted. Still, research and training had to count for something, and then there was instinct.

He turned Keith carefully in his arms so he couldn't reach the neck gland or bite in his sleep - Keith made a needing little whimper and started burying his face in the soft fur at the base of Vrek's throat. Vrek started to purr at him, a deep, throaty rumble nothing like the softer omega purr, and the whine subsided. The attempts to hump Vrek's leg did not, and it was making Vrek uncomfortably hard - it was perfectly within heat protocol to take Keith in his sleep and fuck him to completion, even as an unbonded alpha. He could tell Keith wanted it. _He_ wanted to, quiznak, he wanted so badly just to sink into the furnace that was Keith and knot him again, drown in his scent, (bite him) no, not bite him (maybe a little, in another reality).

But he had a feeling that the version of Keith that wasn't up to the eyeballs in heat hormones would hate the idea, or would at least want to be asked first. So Vrek settled for hitching Keith's leg further up over his hip and sinking a couple of fingers into the soft wetness between his legs. Keith moaned and bore down on them, still fast asleep, scraping blunt claws through the fur on Vrek's shoulders.

‘That’s it,’ murmured Vrek into Keith’s hair, pumping his hand against Keith’s undulating hips. ‘Just let go.’

Keith tried to bite down in his sleep but was met with the dip of Vrek’s sternum, and there was nothing for his teeth to gain purchase on but fur. It didn’t stop him trying, though, and soon Vrek’s chest was soaked with saliva. He did his best to ignore it, his free hand firmly on the back of Keith’s head to keep him where he could do no harm. He added another finger; Keith automatically spread his legs a little further and bucked harder and faster.

You could fuck him, Vrek thought. You could even claim him. He’d forgive you, look at him, he wants you so badly.

He pressed his lips together and turned his back on those thoughts - it was the alpha brain talking, right now Keith needed him to keep his head. Four fingers took a little more effort and infinitely more care. Vrek couldn’t see, but he could feel the slick gushing around his fingertips and the stretch of Keith’s inner walls against the pads. Watching his omega grunt and writhe and try to press down, Vrek wondered if he could take his whole hand, then stomped on the thought - no, if he wanted to do something like that he’d knot him once he was awake. He wasn’t here to have fun. But finally, Keith came with a little wail, rocking into Vrek’s hand and then curling up, satisfied, against his chest. He didn’t even stir when Vrek pulled his hand out, the obscene slick sound sending a shiver right the way down his spine.

Vrek cleaned them both up as best he could, but it was another two vargas before he fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

When Vrek opened his eyes the first thing he was aware of was that according to the clock on Keith’s nightstand, he’d slept about four vargas. That was pretty good for an alpha helping with the first night of a heat. The second thing was that Keith was awake, and watching him with a surprisingly lucid gaze, apparently just waiting for him to wake up.

As nice as the gentle fingers petting the fur on his stomach felt (as much as he could lie there forever and let Keith pet him like that), Vrek knew he had to break the silence. He propped himself up on his elbows and said, ‘You look very clear-headed. How do you feel?’

Keith nodded. ‘Not… normal. Still pretty stupid. Still horny as hell but i can kind of think about it. ‘S like thinking through treacle.’

Vrek raised an eyebrow. ‘Treacle?’

Keith waved his hands. ‘Thick. Sticky. Like… sticky. Hard to think, but I _can_.’

‘Oh, I see,’ said Vrek. ‘Well, most people are in a heat frenzy for their entire heat but it’s perfectly feasable that you might have waves of clarity. I don’t know how long they’d last, though.’

Keith nodded, eyes a little glassy, as if he was trying to remember something, and finally he said, ‘Did you fuck me last night?’

Well, that was direct, thought Vrek. He’d known that Keith would probably be able to tell, if he was even halfway to his right mind, but hadn’t expected it to become an issue. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I woke up to you humping my leg and trying to bite so I let you get off on my fingers. You settled perfectly after that.’

‘Oh.’ Another long, forehead-wrinkling pause, then, ‘Why didn’t you?’

‘I thought you’d want me to ask first.’

Silence again, and Vrek watched Keith struggle with his thoughts, like an internal monster he couldn’t quite beat. After a minute or so, Vrek reached out and scooped the fall of black hair out of Keith’s face. ‘Keith? Omega?’

‘You should gag me,’ he said.

Vrek bit his lip. ‘Do you want that?’ he said softly.

‘No. But I’m going to keep trying to bite. I can’t help it. You said, I tried in my sleep.’

Keith’s distress was visible now, he was talking to the mattress between his knees and gesturing wildly - he was definitely starting to lose control. Vrek reached out and took his hands. ‘Omega. Focus on me. Who am I?’

Keith’s head immediately snapped up and his eyes focussed in Vrek’s face. ‘You’re my alpha,’ he said.

‘Good. That means my job is to take care of you, doesn’t it?’ Keith nodded. Vrek raised his eyebrows. ‘No, talk to me, with words. What’s the right answer?’

‘Yes, alpha,’ said Keith instantly.

‘So I’m not going to gag you unless I have to, if you don’t want it. It would be cruel and irresponsible. Instead I have to keep an eye on you and see that you don’t bite me. And you have to trust me. Do you trust me, omega?’

‘Yes, alpha.’ Keith’s eyes were starting to glaze over and his breath was coming faster - Vrek could see him fighting with his thoughts, but he wasn’t expecting him to blurt out, ‘You can fuck me in my sleep if you want. It’s fine. I trust you.’

Vrek blinked a couple of times, then remembered that his omega expected an answer. ‘Alright, omega,’ he said with a smile. ‘Now you have to eat something.’

Keith grimaced. ‘Do I haaave to? I’m not _hungryyy_ …’

Definitely the end of this lucid stage. Vrek dug a bottle of vitamin drink and an enriched protein bar out of the trunk and handed them over. ‘I don’t care if you’re hungry. I’m not touching you till you finish all that. Eat your food, omega, that’s an order.’

Vrek knew he was playing dirty - Keith would no more be able to disobey him than he could produce Daibazaali huul fruits from thin air - but if it got Keith to eat, it was all to the good. It gave him time to eat, too, and take one of the little orange capsules that supplemented his alpha hormones and meant he wouldn’t need to really sleep until this was over.

Of course Keith was done first, and he sat there watching Vrek hungrily as he finished his protein bar. Vrek almost expected to be jumped as soon as he drained his bottle, but Keith just watched him, eyes trained on his lips, body trembling with tension. Vrek had the impression that if he gave the command, Keith would leap, and then it would be all over for him.

Instead he crawled up very close, fingers in Keith’s hair, lips almost touching Keith’s - Keith’s breath shivered into Vrek’s mouth but he didn’t move.

‘You’re so good,’ murmured Vrek. ‘Look at your control. The most perfect omega I ever heard of, so beautiful, so well-behaved, you smell incredible, I’m so lucky.’

Keith let out a long, wanting breath, _haaah_ , and Vrek drank it in, then closed his mouth over Keith’s, savouring the whine and the way the soft lips parted immediately under his to let him in. He was aware of slim hands against the back of his neck, and a shifting of weight against his shoulders as Keith leaned forward. Vrek let his hands trail down Keith's spine and took his weight, delighting in the sigh when his palm flattened over the upper dorsal gland but unable to ignore the little pangs of trepidation in his own mind. He should have seen this coming when Ilun and Regris had laughed at them in the corridor.

This was too much like making love and there wasn't a thing he could do to change it.

‘Alpha.’

Vrek looked up, startled out of his reverie. ‘What is it, omega?’

‘Did I do something wrong? You stopped. I can't wait any more, I'm sorry…’

Vrek shoved his thoughts to the back of his mind. Selfish, to think this was about him! ‘Quiznak, omega, no, you're perfect and you're doing everything right. I zoned out; that's on me. Now tell me, does it hurt?’

‘No.’ Keith shook his head. ‘Need you… Touch me?’

‘Of course,’ said Vrek, dipping his head to the mark in the crook of Keith’s neck and scraping his fangs across it lightly. This half-lucid Keith, rapidly sinking, turned his head away with a moan, exposing the gland - it had darkened over the previous day and was now almost lavender. ‘How long would it take to make you beg for me, omega? Would it be too cruel?’

‘Uuugghhh… Vrek, alpha, please, no,’ Keith gasped. ‘I mean, I want, you feel so good, but I can’t, I _need_ , don’t _test_ me, alpha.’

‘I’m not testing you,’ replied Vrek, licking the dip at the top of Keith’s sternum - he jolted upwards with a chopped-off cry and plunged a hand between his legs, and Vrek kissed down the roughly diamond-shaped mark there. ‘I’m exploring. You’re fascinating, and so beautiful.’

‘Well- Can’t- _ahh- Later_!’ moaned Keith. ‘After!’

That sent a little pang to Vrek’s bloodpusher, the idea that they might still have something after this, and it was time to bury it. He laid Keith on his back. Keith gave a huge sigh of relief, which was replaced by a cry of indignation as Vrek only grabbed his wrists - one to keep him from touching himself, the other to suck the slick from his fingers. It tasted different from how he was expecting - yes, there was the all-encompassing heat taste, and the spicy-smoke of Keith in the background, but it was a lot saltier than he was expecting from a land-based mammal.

He heard a hiss of a caught breath and looked up into Keith’s face, which almost made him burst out laughing. Keith was watching him with the blown-out pupils and appalled expression of someone who really wanted to be angry but instead was really, really turned on. Vrek ran the flat of his tongue up Keith’s palm, right over the gland there, and was rewarded by the loss of most of the anger, an honest-to-ancestors whimper, and an attempt to fuck up against thin air.

‘Alpha…’ Keith’s voice sounded thin and reedy. ‘Alpha, _please_ …’

‘Will you be good? If I let go of your hands I want them up by your head, no lower than your shoulders.’

Keith nodded. ‘Promise, I’ll be so good, just please, I need you, so bad, alpha, please.’

Vrek kissed the now completely clean palm and let his fangs scrape the slightly rough skin a little. Keith didn’t yelp, but it was a near thing. ‘Alright. Here you go.’ He let go of Keith’s wrists and Keith immediately grabbed the pillow either side of his head and hung on tight.

‘Good boy,’ said Vrek, then, true to his word, he pushed Keith’s legs apart and pressed his lips to the sopping hole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vrek's POV! I figured it was unavoidable at least a bit since Keith is so out of it. But I hope you like him! He's had a surprisingly good reception so far for a guy who's practically an OC so I have high hopes. I love you guys! 
> 
> Also yes, Vrek has a bloodpusher. Thank your lucky stars it's not a squeedlyspooch.


	8. And On and On and On

Slick pulsed into Vrek's mouth, he pushed his tongue past Keith's burning folds and drank him in. He was so absorbed in the taste and the smell and the feel of him that he was barely ready when Keith suddenly bucked up against him, almost nicking himself on Vrek's fangs.

‘Careful!’ said Vrek, sitting up suddenly, then he saw Keith's expression and immediately repented. ‘No, omega, don't look like that, it's fine, that was my fault, I should have been ready for that. I'm sorry.’

‘Cool, just don't stop,’ pleaded Keith.

‘Anything you want,’ said Vrek, drawing two fingers down either side of Keith's swollen, weeping cock where it lay against his stomach. Keith whimpered and arched his back a little but he didn't thrust up. Then Vrek reached the base where the slit started, and pressed lightly on the rounded lumps to either side.

_That_ made keith yell and jerk against Vrek's hand. ‘Sweet mother of _fuck_ , what was _that_?’

Vrek raised his eyebrows. ‘I'll have to tell you when you can think properly. I’m getting the impression you don't touch yourself there very much.’

He watched keith struggle bitterly with his own thoughts and eventually give up. ‘Later,’ he agreed thickly. ‘I hate this, Vrek.’

Vrek nodded. ‘I know. I wish there was a different way.’

‘Do the… whatever you did again.’

‘This?’ Vrek pressed down on the lumps again and Keith bit his lip, the noise he made forced out from the back of his throat. He felt out the shape of them - they didn’t pack out Keith’s outer labia all the way down, and if Vrek pushed a little he could feel them out, something firm in the softness. Every movement and shift of his fingers had Keith whimpering and rocking his hips, little hisses that might have been the start of words escaping from between his clenched teeth

What the hell, Vrek decided. He was probably ready for anything Keith might try to do, so he wouldn’t be in danger of biting him again. He leaned down and licked his curiously dry cock - although it did leak a little, just from the tip, and Vrek licked a long stroke up the underside right up until he could lap up the weeping - slick? Couldn’t be, there wasn’t enough of it. It tasted salty, so maybe it was ejaculate. Keith arched his hips to follow the movement, and Vrek was very grateful that he was in a position where he could watch those hips as they lifted gracefully off the bed. Did the human have nothing clumsy, nothing ugly about him at all? He closed his lips around Keith’s cock and sucked him right to the back of his throat. It took him only two strokes; Keith’s was smaller than every other Galran cock he’d had his mouth on, but Vrek was quickly discovering that made it much easier to work with, to swirl his tongue around the head on the upstroke, to take him right back down to the root, to make him moan.

He was only a little surprised when Keith gave a helpless cry and came without warning, boneless in his hands, his mouth suddenly full of liquid heat that he barely managed to swallow. In fact, Vrek was aware that his chin was covered in it as he pulled off, and his voice was hoarse as he said, ‘Omega?’

‘Hn.’ Keith stared at him, eyes like saucers of ink, even less coherent than before, and only spread his legs further, an invitation that Vrek was powerless to refuse. When he entered Keith’s slit - hot, frictionless but still immediately tight around him - there was no resistance, just a gasp of relief and welcome in his ear, as Keith threw his arms around Vrek’s neck and crossed his ankles over his dorsal gland. Fire rushed up Vrek’s spine and he was certain he would come then and there, one hand on Keith’s hip and the other buried in his hair.

He didn’t. He rocked into the smaller body below him and before long Keith came again, and then before long again, and again, it seemed like a million times, he went from screaming delight to groaning to sobbing and finally exhausted, winded gasps, and by now Vrek’s stomach and thighs were burning with the effort of movement, but Keith refused to let him pull away. ‘No… gotta knot me,’ he whispered, clinging desperately to Vrek’s back like a lifeline. ‘ _Please_ , you promised, alpha.’

‘Shh, shh…’ Vrek smoothed Keith’s hair and pulled him up until he was sitting slumped in his lap. Keith tried to grind down, but he didn’t have the energy to move, nor to stop the tears of frustration from running down his face.

‘You promised.’

‘I know I did, but something clearly isn’t working.’

‘’S’it me?’ The crack in Keith’s voice as he said it went right into Vrek’s chest and he felt he could have died right there; instead he wrapped his arms around his omega and pulled him close.

‘Shh, no, it’s not your fault. Nothing is your fault.’ Vrek smoothed the tears away, and pressed a kiss to the top of Keith’s head. ‘We need to try something else. I’m going to turn you over, alright? You understand me? I’m not leaving.’

Keith nodded, so Vrek pulled out. There was a lot of slick generated by both of them, and Keith, despite having come so many times in the past ancestors knew how long, was still hard - that had to be hurting him by now. He made a lost little sob and slumped further, so Vrek kissed his throat, then leaned over his back to help him lie down again, propped up on his arms with his hips raised. Keith dropped his head on his arms immediately, his face hidden by the tangled mass of black, and Vrek felt like more of a bastard than ever, but if this wouldn’t work, nothing would.

The wet sound when he entered Keith again was almost repellent, but the change in angle was definitely working. Something in Vrek’s instincts reacted to the sight of that long pale back underneath him, the narrow hips in his hands, the soaking hole unhidden and open for him - something offputtingly animalistic, but now was not the time to dwell on that. Vrek pulled Keith’s hips tight against his own and willed his aching stomach muscles not to give up on him.

It still took too long for comfort. Keith came again, twice, to wrung-out little gasps, his slit contracting suddenly around Vrek, and Vrek felt his own orgasm rise in response, strong and bright and just out of reach, every thrust that little bit closer, until finally he reached the point of no return and all was blessed silence for a good ten ticks.

Vrek came back to himself to find - of course - his knot was still tightly fixed inside Keith, who had come yet again and this time blacked out. Vrek cursed under his breath and managed to roll them over so that Keith was lying on his side. Checking his vitals from this angle was awkward, but he was well, so Vrek set about cleaning up the horrendous mess Keith was in, and when the indigo eyes eventually fluttered open they were both wrapped in one of the comforters, and Vrek was holding Keith cradled to his chest, combing his hair with his claws.

‘Alpha?’ slurred Keith.

‘How do you feel?’ said Vrek softly.

There was a pause. ‘Tired. Full.’

‘Mm. Well, my knot still hasn’t gone down so that accounts for that. And you ejaculated at least ten times this round, so no wonder you’re tired.’

‘Is it over?’

Vrek sighed. ‘Only you can tell the answer to that. Is it?’

Keith blinked up at Vrek over his shoulder, then settled back against his chest. ‘No. Gotta sleep, though.’

‘Well, then, go to sleep. I’ll take care of everything.’

Keith fell asleep with the air of someone thankfully relinquishing a heavy load, and didn’t even wake up when Vrek pulled out of him and cleaned him up five dobashes later.

 

* * *

 

The rest of the second day passed in heavy tedium, Keith clearly thoroughly sick of the entire thing but still needing it too much not to keep begging for it. It put Vrek in mind of a Click addict who had reached the stage of hating their addiction but still needed their fix.

After the sixth time he’d fucked Keith and watched him collapse in an exhausted, emotionless heap, only to wake ten dobashes later demanding more as if he was asking for a glass of water, Vrek reached a decision. It was very unprofessional and probably going to come back to bite both of them in the ass later, but right here and right now, the detached approach wasn’t doing Keith any good at all.

He cradled Keith’s dozing form against him, and started licking and sucking on the jugular gland under his mouth. Keith sighed in his sleep and curled up against Vrek’s chest - he seemed to be running a fever, but it was possible that humans were just hotter than Galra. That was something Vrek would have to find out later.

This time, Keith slept peacefully for the whole night cycle, and Vrek managed a few good hours, too. Keith woke and focussed on Vrek - his gaze was weary but mostly clear, so Vrek pressed his lips to his forehead, smiled warmly and said, ‘Good morning, omega. You actually slept. And no wonder, yesterquintent was… well, no wonder you were tired.’

‘Can’t remember much about yesterday,’ said Keith hoarsely.

‘Probably for the best. Ready for breakfast?’

‘My throat hurts. Probably too much dick-sucking.’

Vrek couldn’t hold in the snort of laughter. ‘Uh, yes, that’s probably true. Here, sit up, I have something for that, actually.’ He helped Keith sit up, the comforter around his shoulders, and retrieved two protein blocks, two vitamin drink bottles and a couple of yellow tubes from the trunk. He snapped one of the tubes and it instantly warmed and softened, so he twisted the cap off and tipped the sweet, healing gel down his throat, feeling the faint burn as it went down. Then he snapped the other and handed it to Keith. ‘Here. It’ll help, I promise.’

Keith looked dubiously at him, but he twisted off the cap and swallowed the gel, and his brows shot up. ‘That’s… not bad. I actually feel like I could eat.’

‘That’s what I like to hear. You used a _lot_ of energy yesterquintent.’

‘Mm.’ Keith looked down at his already half-eaten protein bar. ‘Am I… bad at this?’

‘What?’ Vrek blinked. ‘Keith, omega, no, it’s not possible to be bad at this, not for you. You’re having a hard heat, first heats are often difficult. If you want someone to blame, blame me. Not you.’

‘Hey.’ Keith looked up, eyes suddenly sapphire-hard. ‘Any hard time I am having is _not_ your fault. I told you before, no bitching about my alpha.’

Vrek couldn’t help but smile at that. ‘Yes, omega. Now finish your breakfast.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty short chapter here - both because I've been under a fair amount of stress and also because I couldn't really figure out how to make this one longer without running it into the next plot beat. Take it and run! And Happy Winterval, everybody, no matter what you thought of s8!
> 
> Oh, also, anatomy note for those who care - those lumps Vrek was poking at are Keith's balls. They're semi-internal on Galra, but humans have a slightly higher body temperature, which... doesn't actually bode well for Keith's little swimmers. Oh, well, virility is not, in fact, the measure of a man.
> 
> ETA: Look what I got for christmas from the amazing @RosieStarchild on Twitter!


	9. Fuck It, Let's Make Love

Keith ate slower than he had the previous quintent, but he ate, and when the packaging was disposed of, Vrek asked him, ‘How do you feel?’

He shrugged a slim, scarred shoulder. ‘Tired all over. I can feel it building up again, I just want this to be _over_. Vrek, do I really have to do this every month - damn, I mean, every four movements?’

‘It’s that or the suppressants,’ said Vrek. ‘If you really do want to try those then you can but honestly, once you have an alpha you can form a proper bond with it’ll get much easier.’

‘Why won’t you, then?’ The whine in Keith’s voice was starting to become apparent, and Vrek sighed heavily. 

‘Because right now you’re not in your right mind. It wouldn’t be honourable.’ That and so many other reasons, but Keith seemed to accept that with a fair amount of grumbling. Vrek reached out and wrapped his palm around the lavender mark on Keith’s neck - Keith moaned and tipped his head to the side to let him do it, but wouldn’t look at him. ‘Omega. Today won’t be like yesterquintent. I said I would take care of you and I will.’

‘Okay,’ said Keith breathlessly. Vrek ran his hand up and down over the gland, and Keith turned to him and dropped his forehead on his shoulder. ‘I like your fur,’ he said, mostly to himself as he ran the fur of Vrek’s bicep between his fingers. ‘’S soft.’

Vrek chuckled. ‘My mother always said it was my one real beauty.’

‘She was wrong. You’re gorgeous.’

Vrek hid his face in Keith’s hair for a moment - it just wasn’t fair. This beautiful, forthright boy, all fire and light, was here in his lap and yet he wasn’t properly Vrek’s, wouldn’t ever be so. It was almost worse to have this taste. To treat him as if he really was truly Vrek’s would probably doom Vrek for good, or at least for a good long time afterwards, but he’d already decided to do it. Some things were too sweet to pass up.

In the perfect profile of Keith’s face, Vrek could see his eyes were half-lidded and glazed, so he tested him a bit. ‘How do you feel, Keith?’ There was a non-committal grunt, but no reply, so he tried again. ‘Omega, tell me how you feel.’

That made Keith’s eyes open and he made the effort to focus, blinked twice, and finally said, ‘Getting hornier again. Stopped feeling good sometime yesterday, though. My back hurts. I’m filthy. You touching my neck helps.’

‘Thankyou, that’s very helpful. Let’s see if we can get you a shower before the next wave hits, hm?’ Vrek rubbed Keith’s neck gland once more, then let him go. ‘Can you stand up if I help?' 

Keith made a noise very much like a teenager roused from bed on a grey monday morning, but with Vrek’s arm around him he joined in the effort to get him to his feet and stagger to the little cubicle in the corner of the room. There was hardly any room, truth be told, once the screens had been drawn, but at least it was a proper vibration shower and would get them both clean and hopefully relieve some of these aches at the same time.

Vrek set the pulse to medium and started combing his fingers through Keith’s hair, teasing the knots out and helping to shake the worst of the mess loose. Keith shuddered and slumped against his shoulder, pawing fitfully between his legs, which made it a little difficult for Vrek to reach past him for the bottle of cleanser, but he was never going to get Keith clean without it.

The clear, odourless gel evaporated into nothing as Vrek smoothed it through Keith’s hair, and so did the rest of the dirt, allowing the dark mass to fall in heavy, soft waves around Keith’s face once more. Vrek pressed his nose against the back of Keith’s neck and breathed him in for a moment under the guise of smoothing the gel over Keith’s stomach - even without looking he could feel the muscles jump under his fingers.

‘Alpha,’ moaned Keith, ‘Touch me.’

‘I will,’ said Vrek. ‘I am. Can you hold it together a bit longer for me?’

‘I’m _trying_ , but it’s…’ Vrek couldn’t see Keith’s face, but he heard a small wet sound through the thrumming of the shower, like Keith had swallowed or licked his lips. ‘It’s so hard.’

‘I know you’re trying, omega. You’re doing so well. Just stay standing, can you do that?’

‘I’ll try.’

‘No, omega, tell me, _can you stay standing_?’

Another pause. ‘Yes.’

‘Good boy.’ Vrek got another glob of cleanser and turned his attention to Keith’s legs, up the backs of his thighs and in between, his palms passing over the glands and heating a little in response. At the slow drag of skin on skin, higher and higher towards the join of Keith’s legs, even Vrek wasn’t surprised when Keith put his hands out and braced himself on the wall.

‘Alpha - please…’ He sounded strained, as if the knowledge of words and how to speak was coming from a long way off. ‘If you do that I can’t stand...’

‘If you can’t stay standing then kneel down,’ said Vrek. Keith instantly obeyed, turning to face Vrek as he did so, and Vrek was instantly struck that Keith’s face was now at groin height. Keith seemed to have noticed too, and looked up at him through his lashes, and when had those slim hands appeared on Vrek’s hips? Vrek bit his lip. ‘You don’t have to,’ he said, mouth suddenly dry.

‘Can I?’

‘Quiznak, Keith. Omega. Of course you can.’

Keith’s gaze became a flat glare. That clearly hadn’t been the answer he wanted. Vrek’s mind raced for a moment, then he realised what Keith was after and relief painted a smile across his face. ‘Oh, are you feeling more like yourself? What’s on your mind, Keith? Clearly you have plans. Show me what you’re thinking, omega, that’s an order.’

The noise Keith made was nothing short of blissful, and he tugged Vrek the half-step closer till he could open his mouth and lick him all the way from the base of his slit up to the tip of his cock, collecting the slick on his tongue. Not that it made Vrek any cleaner - in fact he felt a fresh pulse of slick gush down his thighs, and Keith took no notice, he was busy singling out each and every one of the bumps on Vrek’s cock, lovingly licking them in turn until they were bright lights of pleasure and weeping with slick.

It was overwhelming, hard to think through the sheer sensation - this must be what being in heat was like, Vrek thought. He would have given a lot to have been able to lie down, or even have a wall to brace himself on - he didn’t trust the screen behind him to bear his weight, so he had to make his legs do their job. But Keith had reduced him to a panting, trembling mess in pretty short order, one hand on the wall behind Keith and the other in Keith’s hair, gasping and moaning and at one point just barely stopping himself from telling Keith he loved him, which would have been really really bad.

And then Keith stopped and turned his face up to him, glassy-eyed but smiling, too mindless even to beg, and Vrek moved almost on automatic. He sank to his knees and drew Keith into his lap; Keith sank down onto his cock in a slow, smooth movement that felt like he belonged there. They sat for a moment, arms around one another, the only sound their heavy breaths and the hum of the vibration shower.

Vrek could have stayed there forever, Keith encompassing him completely in warmth and welcome - it didn’t matter that it wasn’t in the nest. Everything - _Keith_ \- was perfect. Then Keith started to grind down and Vrek had to adjust his parameters for _perfect_. He also had to adjust his grip, and get one hand under Keith’s thigh and the other around his back to support him and help him move. Chapped, kiss-bitten lips smeared desperately against his but he couldn't care about the lack of finesse. He could only chase, smudging urgent kisses across Keith's jaw till they met in the middle in a surge of frantic fire. He felt rather than heard Keith whimper into his mouth and freed up the hand round his back to slip between them, get his fingers messy with slick and loose around Keith's cock. Keith mumbled something incoherent and obscene into the kiss and rocked his body against Vrek's, wanting and fluid and totally pliant. It was almost unbelievably easy to bring him off - it seemed like three strokes and he was gone, and this time too busy kissing Vrek to try to bite him.

All too soon, though, he raised his head, the vibration shower having kept his face clean and perfect even if his stomach was a mess once more. ‘Again,’ he demanded.

Vrek laughed. ‘Absolutely. But not here, my knees ache.’

In reply to that, Keith wrapped his legs tightly round Vrek's waist. Vrek groaned in response. ‘Going to be like that, is it? Well, fine. Hang on.’

And hang on Keith did. Later, Vrek would say he had no idea how he stood up, got out of the shower and back to the nest with keith clinging to his torso like an overgrown Tellian trewlit, but he did, and he didn’t drop Keith either. In fact, he managed to set him down gently among the cushions without jostling him at all.

‘There, you menace,’ he said, dropping a kiss on Keith's forehead. ‘All safe. Are you going to untangle me now?’

When Keith's gaze tracked down Vrek's body and up again, leaving fire in its wake, Vrek already had his answer. ‘No,’ said Keith, and rolled his hips up against him.

‘Clearly you feel better.’ Vrek rolled them over so that Keith was sitting astride him, hands splayed on his chest to keep himself upright - not that Vrek would have let him fall. Purple hands wrapped around the pale waist to hold him where he was, and Vrek gazed up at him, at the light striking golden sparks in his hair, at the wide violet eyes, and could have looked forever. ‘If I never get to be here again, I’ll remember this one time for the rest of my life,’ he murmured.

Unfortunately it was lost on Keith, who only moaned something that sounded like an attempt at _Alpha_ and raised himself up, up until he was almost off Vrek’s dick, then plunged back down with his head flung back and an expression of utter bliss on his face. Vrek made a punched-out gasp and shifted his grip - one hand under Keith’s thigh, the other wrapped around his cock, and the second Vrek touched him Keith came again with a yell and, ‘Alpha… please, I _need_ you…’

‘I know…’ panted Vrek, sitting up so it would be easier to help Keith bounce in his lap, and also to spread fervent kisses across his shoulders. ‘I need you too, oh, sweet fuck, I don’t think I ever needed anything more, omega, you’re incredible, just look at you…’

He was babbling, he knew it, as he left a bruise with his lips just barely under Keith’s jugular gland - Keith sobbed wildly and tried to turn his neck towards Vrek’s mouth, and then came while his mouth was on him. But he didn’t care, and he was close, so close, and reaching heights he hadn’t touched in the past three days. Vrek’s focus was absolute - his world was composed of Keith, and his own sensory glands. Keith was the most amazing, the most glorious thing he’d ever seen in the entire universe in his entire life, and as Vrek’s knot began to swell, he thought that if there was a better feeling than this, maybe it was for the best that he’d never experience it because it would probably kill him. He buried his face in Keith’s hair and mouthed his name when he filled him up, and felt Keith jerk violently and spread wet heat between them.

There was silence. This time it was a warm, soft silence, and eventually broken by Vrek whispering as he stroked Keith’s hair, ‘My omega. So lovely, I wish I could keep you, we’d be so happy. I’d take such good care of you, you’re the best omega anywhere, the best and most beautiful.’

There was no reply. Keith had fallen asleep.

In fact it was lucky Keith didn’t try to bite him this time, because Vrek probably wouldn’t have tried to stop him if he had. The yearning images of a home for the two of them on a peaceful planet and Keith pregnant with Vrek’s child didn’t go away until long after the knot had deflated and Vrek had pulled out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope your Christmas was awesome! I got fanart from the amazing @RosieStarchild on Twitter! Except it's for the previous chapter so I'll put it in there.
> 
> OK so obviously water is at a premium on the meteor and needs to be shipped in, so all the showers are vibration showers and use no water at all.


	10. Time to Explore

The first thing Keith was aware of was the emptiness - Vrek had pulled out, leaving him cold and incomplete, the wet that coated his legs and stomach turned unpleasantly chill on his skin. But his alpha was still here, arms tight around him, murmuring incomprehensible sweet nothings into his ear, so Keith relaxed against his chest and let the low wash of Vrek’s voice comfort him. Every now and again he could pick out praises, wanting to be happy with him, best omega. Did Vrek have some kind of white picket fence fantasy about Keith? That was kind of ironic, considering everything, although it was very cute.

That was when it occurred to him that he could think. Still slow and stupid, with the occasional having to stop and look around for a word that he was sure he’d left just right here, but his mind was starting to climb out of the hot sticky syrup of his heat. He still ached with it, wanted it so badly he could barely breathe - clearly it wasn’t over yet - but it was a relief to be able to at least think clearly enough to have an opinion.

He looked up and dropped a kiss on the curve of Vrek’s jaw. ‘Vrek? You OK there?’

Vrek raised his head abruptly and looked at Keith, a little startled. ‘What did you say? I mean, yes, I’m fine. How do you feel?’

‘Little bit sore and tired but definitely not done yet. Good news is I’m getting more, more,’ Keith snapped his fingers a couple of times, and gave it up as a bad job. ‘I can think better. I don’t think it’s going to go away this time either, it feels different. Why’d you look so surprised?’

Vrek smiled. ‘Nothing. Just that I think that’s the first time you’ve called me by my name in three quintents. I’m glad you feel better, Keith. May I give you a quick health check?’

Keith yawned hugely. ‘Up to you,’ he said as Vrek reached to the trunk for the examination tube. ‘You’re the alpha and the doctor here.’

‘Then allow me to rephrase. Open your legs, omega, I am going to give you a health check.’

Keith had thought he was used to being casually ordered around by Vrek, certainly the mindlessness of heat took a lot of the experience away, but a frisson of excitement shivered down his spine at the command in Vrek’s voice. He immediately sat back and spread his legs, watching the clear rod disappear into himself for a few seconds. It was smooth and narrow enough that he barely felt it, but the efficiency on Vrek’s face while he read the results made Keith want to touch him. He kept his hands to himself, though, and on himself.

Vrek gave him a sideways glance and a twitch of a smirk and said, ‘Temperature 301 laslocks, I think your temperature at your initial health check was 286 so you’re always going to be high. Contraceptive working perfectly, heat in the early stages of descent, this should be over within ten vargas. After that you get an extra half-quintent to sleep it off and a thorough body scan in one movement. But I think you’ll be fine.’

‘Okay,’ said Keith breathlessly, hand moving languidly on his cock. ‘I'll be even better if you come back here, though. I think I'm even able to tell you what I want, you gonna waste that?’

‘Oh, are you?’ Vrek disposed of the testing rod and slid his body up along Keith's, his fur cool and soft to the touch. Keith turned towards him without even thinking, drunk on his smile. ‘Why don't you tell me, then?’

That wasn’t right. Vrek should be ordering him. Keith bared his teeth and whined, ‘You're meant to _order_ me, alpha.’

Vrek looked down at him, his pupilless gold eyes somehow conveying kindness and anticipation at the same time, and combed Keith's hair out of his face with careful fingers. Keith chased the caress, breathing in Vrek's scent on his hand - spy suit and disinfectant, had he said it was? He'd been wrong. It was sharp and clean and strength and safety, and a million other things he couldn't describe.

‘Ordering is for when it's necessary,’ said Vrek softly.

‘But it's _hot_ ,’ whispered Keith.

‘Well, maybe I'll do it some more later if you're good. Now I'm asking. What else do you like?’

‘I like when you touch- no, when you lick my glands. All of them. And when you rub your glands on mine, why does that feel so good?’

‘Why don’t you tell me?’ said Vrek, and rubbed his palm right up the inside of Keith's thigh, his hand sliding smoothly on the slick. Keith opened to him with an anguished cry, sensation arcing through him to his core.

‘Oh! Oh sweet fuck, it’s like… like electricity just shot up my leg right into my cunt, oh god Vrek, again, please!’

Vrek did it again, and Keith fell into his intense yellow gaze, howling at the building of tension in his oversensitive nerves.

‘I bet you could come just from this,’ murmured Vrek, stroking both thighs with slick palms. Keith tried to make words, but could only warble in response. That was fine, the only important thing was the feeling. ‘Keep looking at my face, omega.’

‘ _Alpha_ ,’ whined Keith, eyes huge and dark, hands sweaty on Vrek's shoulders, kneading at his glands.

Vrek gasped and slid his hands up to the juncture of Keith’s legs, pressed his palms to his opening enough to collect a double handful of slick, and smeared it back down again, the slow progress of his fingers dragging the moan from the back of Keith’s throat.

And the feeling, impossibly, was spreading, through his core, up his spine and chest in delicious, tingling waves of heat, making it harder to think again - he clawed his thoughts together and managed, ‘Alpha… I need, I need…’ He licked his lips and stared past Vrek’s right ear, trying to collect the words for _what_ , exactly, he needed.

But Vrek’s hands stopped moving. In fact, they moved off the glands altogether, down to the soft space behind Keith’s knees, which was nice, but not _enough._ And then he realised Vrek was trying to lift his legs, and put out a clumsy hand to stop him.

‘Noooo,’ whined Keith.

Vrek paused. ‘No? What’s the matter? Omega, you have to tell me if there’s something wrong.’

Keith was panting now, but eventually he had to give up on most of his vocabulary and drag a hand between his legs, making his fingers far more wet than even he had expected. ‘More here,’ he explained, stroking the now livid thigh glands. ‘But not _enough_ \- also here - and here - and here.’ He smeared slick on both sides of his neck, on the dip of his clavicle, the sides of his chest and on the soft skin of his inner arms - whether he even knew they were glands was debatable at this point, and so was whether he would have done the same for the glands on his back and feet had he been able to easily reach them.

Luckily, his alpha was no chump. Understanding dawned on Vrek’s face before Keith was even half done, and he let out a long breath, heavy with desire. ‘I… I can absolutely give you that,’ he said, and leaned down until they were a tangle of limbs, and Vrek was close enough to press a kiss to Keith’s lips. Keith stared at him, shivering, and Vrek pushed both hands into the heavy mass of his hair and murmured, ‘I’m going to lick all your glands in turn until they’re weeping scent for me. Do you want that?’

Numbly, Keith nodded. ‘I’m probably gonna come without you,’ he blurted, of all the damnfool things, as if he hadn’t been coming without Vrek all this time.

Vrek just smiled. ‘You do that,’ he said, then tilted Keith’s head gently upwards and started licking, then sucking on the soft curve where shoulder joined neck.

‘Ohgod,’ whispered Keith and shut his eyes, but it was no use, because the little flashes and wavering sensations were behind his own eyelids and he couldn’t escape them, only cling to Vrek as they spread through his body. He kept waiting for something - then he realised it was the sting of teeth. He wanted Vrek to bite him more than he wanted anything else in the entire universe. Why had he decided Vrek’s little fantasy was silly? Right here and now, in Vrek’s arms with Vrek kissing and suckling on his neck gland, it was the pinnacle of everything he’d ever wanted. He dug his fingers into the muscular back and pleaded, ‘Alpha - don’t let me go.’

Vrek lifted his head long enough to say, ‘I’m not going anywhere, my omega,’ then turned Keith’s face to the other side, nuzzled his ear and scraped his fangs lightly down the other neck gland.

Keith yelped and came, thunder in his ears and visions of forever in his eyes, and Vrek held him tight all through it, muttering sweet things in his ear about how perfect he was, what a good omega, so beautiful and so strong. And yet, Keith found when he came back to his senses, still no bite.

He swallowed hard and rasped, ‘No bite? Fuck dammit.’

Vrek laughed and kissed his neck gland. ‘If it’s any consolation, you don’t make it easy.’

‘Obviously hard enough.’

‘Omega. Enough about the bite now.’ Vrek threw a leg over Keith’s hips and started kissing down his collarbone until he reached his clavicle, and the top of the sternum gland.

Keith sucked in a breath. ‘Oh. Yes, alpha. Can I… can I touch you?’

‘Always,’ replied Vrek, glancing up from where he was repeatedly licking Keith’s sternum. He caught the reaching hands and placed them on his head, just behind his broad, pointed ears, so Keith stroked them. They flicked, so he tried again, this time digging his fingers into the thick purple fur just behind them - immediately, Vrek began to purr, rumbling vibrations passing from his mouth to the crest of Keith’s chest.

‘Uh,’ gasped Keith, and redoubled his efforts, suddenly aware of Vrek grinding down against him and sucking on his chest gland at the same time. ‘Oh, fuck, don’t stop.’

Vrek mumbled something that sounded like it might have been ‘You don’t either,’ but it was hard to understand through the purrs. And then he moved his mouth to Keith’s nipple, which wasn’t part of the plan but Keith shouted nonetheless, gradually every sense pulling higher and higher as Vrek’s mouth moved over his body.

Vrek grinned against Keith's skin. ‘Oh, that feels good?’ he said.

Keith's attempt at a smart response turned to cotton in his mouth, all he could do was knead at Vrek's hair and hope the alpha wouldn't stop. And then Vrek was lifting his arm, and Keith jerked back a little. Vrek was watching him patiently, although he was breathing heavily and even Keith could tell he reeked of lust.

‘Is something wrong, omega?’

Keith licked his lips, absently petting Vrek's hair while he tried to think what to say. ‘I. We’re. Not used to being touched under there. It’s, uh, sensitive, not in a good way.’

‘You have glands there,’ said Vrek. ‘Shall I skip those?’

Keith thought for a moment. ‘Mmm… No. Be careful, though?’

‘As if I would ever be anything other than careful with you,’ replied Vrek fondly. He stroked along the length of Keith's arm until it was extended elegantly over his head, then kissed his palm, his wrist, all down the inside of his forearm. Keith shivered under his touch and moaned his disappointment when Vrek's attention didn't stay on the stripe of purple on his forearm. Vrek kissed the soft place on the inside of his elbow and muttered, ‘Hush, omega, I'll get there later.’ Then he brushed his fingertips lightly through the dark curls in Keith's armpit.

Keith immediately yelped and pulled his arm in. Vrek sat up, concern written in every line of his face. ‘Did I hurt you? Are humans _that_ sensitive there?’

Keith focussed, and the first thing he thought, of course, was, He's so hot, I want him to mate me. The second thing was, He's so nice. What do I even _do_ with that?

He reached out sluggishly, sat up as best he could and attempted to kiss the worry off his alpha's face. It was still there when he sat back, though, so he nuzzled Vrek's neck and said, ‘Of course you didn't hurt me, I'm fine. It's just… It's a weird feeling, like a mild electric shock, I guess? Anyway it happens on the feet too and a few other places, it varies.’

‘Like an electric shock?’ Vrek looked appalled and Keith couldn't help but laugh at him.

‘Yeah, but just a little one! It doesn't hurt! In fact most humans think it's funny! I just… I'd rather you didn't do it to me, OK?’

‘I… Of course,’ said Vrek. ‘But I may need some guidance.’

‘I can do that.’ Keith kissed him again and lay back, both arms above his head. ‘I trust you, alpha.’

‘It’s remarkable how the only places humans grow body hair is between your legs and under your arms,’ said Vrek, smiling down at him.

‘Yeah, I think it's a chafing thing. Some people get really fucking hairy, I've just never had the knack. Now, you were in the middle of something?’ Keith grinned. ‘ _Less_ gentle this time, please.’

Vrek considered for a moment, then pushed the heel of his hand firmly against the curve of Keith's armpit - Keith smiled and licked his lips. ‘Yeah. Like that.’

A few more firm strokes along the purpled curve where pectoral met armpit, and Keith was breathing hard. Cool fingers slid into the hot slick between his legs and he couldn't hold in the moan - to be honest he had forgotten about Vrek's other hand, of all the absurd things.

‘Oh god that's not fair.’

‘Oh?’ Vrek kissed the protest off his lips, smudged kisses down the side of his neck while Keith writhed and gasped under him, and then buried his nose in the dark hair under his arm and breathed in deep.

Keith shivered and arched, pushing against the hand working his slit, and managed, ‘Fuck, you're so fucking bizarre, why does that feel so good?’ before Vrek breathed him in again and words were incredibly hard to find. He gave it his best shot, though, managing a needing warble against the rising sensation before finally getting his vocal chords in gear to gasp, ‘Alpha… need you in me like yesterday, get _on_ with it!’

The rumbling, purring chuckle against the curve of his pectoral almost had Keith gone right then. But all Vrek said was, ‘You call me strange, yet you give orders like an alpha.’

Even as Vrek shifted his grip to Keith's hips a frisson of fear went down Keith's spine. ‘Should I stop?’ he rasped.

‘Quiznak, no. Not _ever_.’ And Vrek drew Keith's trembling, bruise-mottled thighs up around his waist and pushed into his wet heat once more. Keith keened softly and dragged his nails down Vrek's back, lifting his hips in response to his rhythm as best he could.

‘Fuck me, I'm too fuckin _weak_ , I wanna give you- _ahh_ \- give- _oh_ _god_ alpha I'm sorry I-’

However furious at his fading stamina he was, Keith suddenly found himself silenced by a warm mouth on his and a hand on his cock, making him scream into the kiss.

‘You’re doing so _well_ , omega, so well, don't worry about _me_ ,’ murmured Vrek, his lips practically touching Keith's before he kissed him again. Keith registered more praise, more encouragement, but all he cared about was the increasingly frantic kisses, the scent of Vrek all around him and how well he filled him as he was driven over the edge yet again.

As Keith came back from god knew how many this orgasm was, he realised Vrek was still thrusting into him, hands tight on his hips. It was too much, almost painful amounts of sensation but he couldn't bring together enough sense to do anything but cling to Vrek and take it, and howl into his mouth when he came, shoving Keith over the cliff of an impossible second climax.

And for a while there was nothing but the overpowering smell-taste-touch of Vrek’s alpha scent, which would have been the centre of Keith’s sensory universe if not for the knot, which felt like it filled everything which was missing in him and made him complete. Gradually he came down and started noticing other things - Vrek’s arms around him, holding him close, and a gentle hand combing through the thick hair at the back of his neck. The hypnotic, reassuring purr that he thought at first was Vrek and then realised it was _both_ of them.

One of the last things he realised was that his teeth were much longer and sharper than he was used to, and through the scent he could taste blood.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger, yay! Don't kill me. Oh, by the bye, one of my betas (thanks, RosieStarchild!) reminded me of something I really should have addressed - yes, Keith and Vrek do need to go to the toilet in all this. I FORGOT. Assume they go between the chapters, OK? Also, since this is the Marmora base on the meteor, water is a priority so it's all chemical toilets, sonic vibration showers and basically as little actual water used as possible. One of the things they DO use a lot of water for is Regris's sleeping tank, since he's an amphibian and has to stay hydrated. The more you know! 
> 
> Also speaking of @RosieStarchild LOOK IT'S VREK. Isn't he GORGEOUS? This is canon Vrek now, everyone.


	11. Hello Doctor

Keith sat up with a jolt, as far as the knot would let him, and stared down at Vrek in horror. He could see no blood on his neck or arms - had he at some point managed to get to his thighs or his dorsal gland? Until the knot went down there was no way to tell.

‘Oh fuck. I fucked up, oh, fuck…’ Keith touched his hand to his mouth and stared at the smear of purple that came away on his fingers - yep, definitely not his blood. And what would happen now? What were all these mysterious reasons that Vrek wouldn’t tell him for not bonding with him? Keith was just about to start panicking when the weight behind him moved, drew him down again - he didn’t have presence of mind to fight it and in any case didn’t want to, he’d fucked up and now the strong embrace was a comfort, if a guilty one. So he lay there on Vrek’s chest and whispered, ‘I bit you, I’m sorry, I fucked everything up. You should gag me now.’

‘You bid my tongue,’ said Vrek. He was slurring slightly, but sounded otherwise unbothered. ‘I wasn’t expecding your fangsh to come out so sudden’y, id’s fide. Nothing’s fucked up at all.’

Keith looked up, disbelieving in the face of Vrek’s smile. But Vrek just raised his eyebrows and kept petting Keith’s hair. ‘You look good with fangs.’

‘What.’ Keith carefully felt out the points of his new canines with his tongue. ‘Well, I kinda hope _that’s_ not permanent. Is it just fangs?’

‘That and the eyes. And the purple,’ replied Vrek. ‘I think your Galra traids madifest only in exdreme stresh, so it makes sense that id would’ve happened at leasht once this heat. Oh, here we go.’

Keith managed to stop himself from whining or clinging to Vrek when he pulled out, although he couldn’t prevent a punched-out little gasp as the deflated knot slipped free. Vrek cupped his face in his hand and smudged their lips together, and once again Keith tasted metal in his mouth. ‘You’re lasting longer, you’re more coherent and you’re much more like yourself,’ he said. ‘I think it will only be a few vargas now.’

‘Right,’ said Keith, trying not to feel sad about that. ‘I’m… going to the bathroom.’

He looked at his face in the little square mirror in the cubicle that housed the shower, the pull-out chemical toilet and the sink that flipped out from the wall and was only really there for him to shave in if he decided to start growing facial hair, ever. And it seemed today was the day, except it was a fine peach fuzz all over and it was violet. His eyes were gold, with slit pupils like a cat’s, and when he bared his teeth they were significantly more… _carnivore_ than he remembered them.

He shivered, dealt with business and returned to the nest. ‘Yeah, Galra Keith is gonna take some getting used to if it sticks.’

‘I shouldn’t worry,’ said Vrek. ‘Id’s starting to fade already.’ He passed a gentle hand over Keith’s cheek, and smiled. ‘You were signifigadly furrier a few minides ago. I assure you Galra Kei-’ He paused, swallowed, and had another go. ‘Galra Keid. Galra Keef.’

‘That’s close enough, it’s fine,’ said Keith hastily. ‘In fact if it’s hurting you to talk you don’t have to make the effort for me, really. I feel bad enough as it is.’

Vrek laughed. ‘Whad, a lil’ scrash like thish? I’m a Blade, remember, this is nothig. Bud yesh. As I was sayig, Galra Keef is _very addractive_. Take id from me, I know these thigs.’ He extended an arm and Keith stopped staring and let himself curl in against his alpha’s silk-velvet side, and have the comforter folded over them both. ‘Wan’ food?’

‘No,’ replied Keith. ‘Not yet. Just wanna sleep.’

‘Nod surprised. I’m acshually amazed id took this log for you to shift, bud thad could be due to any number of facdors.’

‘Mm.’ Keith buried his nose in Vrek’s shoulder, barely awake now. ‘Maybe I’m just that badass.’

The last thing he registered was a chuckle and ‘Maybe you are,’ and the sensation of lips in his hair.

* * *

 

Keith only slept for about half a varga, and it seemed that Vrek was right - the heat was perceptively lighter on waking. That was more distressing news than it should have been, and the more Vrek helped him through the successively spaced-apart orgasms, during which his thoughts returned with more and more clarity, Keith was horribly aware that he was anticipating the end of this with dread.

It took until he and Vrek were sitting in the nest facing each other, feet just touching as they ate lunch, before Keith could summon up the courage to ask Vrek about it.

‘Hey… Vrek? Alpha?’

‘Mm?’

‘Oh.’ Keith slumped. ‘Doesn’t matter.’

Vrek’s ears pricked up in concern. ‘No, tell me. Have I upset you?’

There it was, the direct order from his alpha. And it tugged, weaker now, but still there. So Keith took a deep breath and said, ‘I was just wondering when this alpha-omega thing wears off.’

‘Oh.’ Vrek’s ears went down for a moment, but his expression didn’t otherwise change. ‘It should stay in some fashion until after you’ve had a proper sleep away from me. Sometimes a quintant or so longer but don’t worry, you’ll not be stuck with me for long.’

‘Right,’ muttered Keith, unable to look him in the face. ‘So… you think it’s over?’

‘Do you?’

Keith paused. ‘Well… I can’t tell. I mean, I’m done fucking, I’m pretty sure about that, and OK, I’m still up for obeying every word you say, you said that’s normal, but…’ He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.

Vrek dumped the his protein pouch in the waste unit and shuffled over to Keith’s side. ‘But? I won’t order you to tell me, Keith. But I won’t think less of you, whatever it is.’

Keith said nothing, he just turned and rested his head on Vrek’s shoulder, closing his eyes and breathing him in. Vrek sighed softly and stroked his fingers through Keith’s hair, and eventually he just said, ‘I know. I know, Keith. This happens, of course it does, if you still feel like this in three quintants we’ll talk about it then, alright?’

Keith nodded. ‘So what next?’

‘Well, first you finish your lunch. Then we shower and get into fresh uniforms, and we clean out the nest and break it down, and then we each have a post-heat health inspection - did you know Ulaz is due back on base tonight? Then we get to sleep as late as we want tomorrow, just as long as we do it in our _own_ rooms.’

‘Wait, _what_?’ said Keith, looking up suddenly. ‘ _Ulaz_ is coming back? How did you hear about this when you’ve been stuck in here with me?’

‘I do have a tablet and get updates,’ said Vrek. ‘Yes, before you ask, I’ve been giving minimal updates about you, too. Along the lines of “doing fine” “nothing gone wrong, eating well”, that kind of thing. Mainly to give Kolivan something to tell your Voltron friends.’

Keith thought of what he would tell his friends about this - what Lance would say, and the expression on Shiro’s face - and went beetroot.

‘Keith? Are you- oh, no, not shifting again, just a rush of blood to the face. Anything wrong?’

‘No,’ said Keith. ‘I’m fine. I. I guess we’d better get on with it, huh.’ He disposed of the packaging from his meal and stared at his hands for a second. ‘Wait. Before we start winding this down I want to do one last thing.’

There had been so many kisses in the last few quintants. Frantic, wild, deep kisses; quick smudges of lip on lip; biting, raucous kisses that couldn’t get enough. If this one was going to be the last one, Keith wanted it to be memorable. He licked his lips tentatively, stroking the hair back from Vrek’s face, aware he was being watched, aware of the trembling breaths passing between the soft lips.

He almost expected Vrek to push against him, but he only met Keith with equal force, lips parting to let him in, tongue rising against Keith’s, arms coming up to wrap around Keith’s back as he draped his arms round Vrek’s neck. He had no idea how long the kiss lasted, but he felt as though he might cry when they broke apart, looking into the face of his alpha and wanting more than anything to not have to let go.

‘Vrek, I’m sorry.’

‘No, you did so well. You were amazing.’

‘No, I mean, I don’t think I’m coming down from this.’

There was silence for a second. Vrek let him rest, foreheads touching, and finally just said, ‘Let’s not talk about it now. Three quintants, alright?’

Keith nodded. There wasn’t much else he could do. Then Vrek helped him up and together they began to clean up.

* * *

 

Keith thought that he’d be kept awake by the lack of the cool body beside him, but Vrek gave him a little yellow pill to dissolve on his tongue, and he slept like the dead, and didn't dream. He woke with a start fourteen Vargas later, to find that it was well after lunchtime and his tablet was blinking with a message. He snatched it up, full of hope, but the message was from Ulaz, not Vrek.

_Keith: Reply as soon as you get this, and report to the medbay immediately. Do not eat, train or shower first. - Ulaz._

Keith sighed, tapped out a reply that he was on his way, and struggled into his uniform, trying not to acknowledge the loneliness. He should be able to find his alpha from kilometers away, Regris had said, but when he opened the door and took a big breath in, all he got was the scrubbed air of the base’s corridors, and nothing else. But what had he expected? It was over. Vrek had moved on, just like everyone else. Keith shook himself and turned towards medbay.

He stopped short at the end of the corridor at the sound of raised voices.

 

‘-in the name of the Ancestors was I supposed to know?’ That was Kolivan. What was _he_ doing here?

‘That’s the entire point. You _don’t_ know! So you should have delayed it till I got back.’ And that was Ulaz - not shouting, Keith didn’t think he was the type, but by the sound of it something was trying his patience a great deal.

‘The side effects could have been as bad as they were for Regris - worse, even, you know that, Ulaz.’

‘But they wouldn’t have been permanent and we could have cured him. What happens now… You realise this might have lifelong repercussions for them both?’

Keith decided now would be a good time to cut in, before things got really out of hand. The sudden silence, and the looks he got from Ulaz and Kolivan, were almost as bad as the stares he’d got from the alphas on the base during his pre-heat.

‘What kind of lifelong repercussions are we talking about here?’ he said, mostly to break up the tension.

Ulaz and Kolivan exchanged glances. Kolivan sagged a little and said, ‘I will leave you with him, Ulaz. I wish you luck, Keith.’

Keith watched him go, then returned his attention to Ulaz. ‘So… lifelong repercussions? What am I missing here?’

‘Nobody has deliberately withheld information from you, Keith,’ said Ulaz flatly. ‘In order to find out what I need to tell you, I need to complete your examination. Would you please undress and get up on the table?’

Keith considered protesting, but he’d lost a lot of the fucks he had to give about nudity over the past few quintants, so he just stripped down and sat down on the examination table. His gland markings, to his surprise, had stayed as vivid purple as they had been through the heat, and he stared at his inner arm and said, ‘So when is this gonna fade?’

‘It’s very likely to be permanent,’ replied Ulaz. ‘How many?’

‘Thirteen,’ said Keith, and listed them off. ‘Vrek seemed to think it was a lot.’

‘It is a lot, but not the most on the base. Now I’m going to take a scent sample, it’s up to you which gland it comes from.’

Keith considered, and extended his arm so that Ulaz could rub a pad of… something over the purple stripe until it felt a little raw and he could smell his own scent even without raising it to his face.

‘So tell me,’ said Ulaz, ‘How did it go?’

Keith grimaced. ‘I thought that was between me, Vrek and the nest.’

Ulaz gave a huff of laughter. ‘Oh, of course, I’m not asking for the sloppy details. I mean in a _general_ sense. Do you feel it went well? How was Vrek as a heat partner? How do you feel now?’

‘Oh.’ Keith searched for words as Ulaz looked him over for injuries and smeared a clear, entirely scentless gel on the scratches on his back and hips. ‘It… yeah, it went great. Way better than I thought. Everyone I asked recommended Vrek and I’m…’ There was nothing he could say. He looked down at his hands. ‘I’m glad I chose him. He took good care of me. He’s an excellent alpha.’

Ulaz narrowed his eyes. ‘You don’t look happy.’

‘I’ll be fine.’

A long, loaded silence, then Ulaz brought out the familiar scanning rod in its clear tube, and Keith automatically spread his legs for it. He wasn’t as slick this time and it didn’t go in so easy, but Ulaz moved slowly, careful of his patient, and didn’t extend the ritual any longer than necessary.

‘As you may be aware,’ he said finally, reading the results off the holoscreen, ‘I have been spending some time with your Voltron friends, and so have gained some knowledge about humans that we didn’t have on the base before. I am concerned about one thing in particular, but you must tell me - how do you feel about Vrek now?’

Keith looked up, surprised, into Ulaz’s blank, inquiring gaze, and almost refused to tell him. But what would have been the good in that?

‘Honestly?’

‘Of course honestly.’ Ulaz shone a small torch into Keith's eye, making him recoil for a moment. ‘In as much detail as you feel comfortable with, please.’

The torch had made red and green dots swim in Keith's vision and that was a perfect excuse to avoid Ulaz’s gaze as he said, ‘Well, I guess in Galra terms I kinda still think he's my alpha. Sort of. I mean I can't smell him from a distance or anything so maybe it translates better into human?’

‘Alright, so describe your feelings as you would to a human. Oh, and you can get dressed now.’

Keith dressed at lightning speed, but rapidly discovered that it hardly helped. ‘I. Ulaz, humans - male humans especially - don't talk about this as much as you seem to think.’

Ulaz raised an eyebrow, and they were very good for the purpose. ‘Really? The blue paladin was most vocal on the subject.’

‘Well, he's a dick.’ There was a short silence, and eventually Keith conceded, ‘I’m probably also spectacularly bad at this and literally the worst person to ask ever. Look at me, I'm half alien, I don't know how to human _or_ Galra.’

‘That is not really what I'm asking you,’ said Ulaz, glancing at his reference tablet. ‘Vrek notes here he will discuss any lingering attachment issues with you in three quintents' time. What I am most concerned about is that humans are particularly prone to forming attachments at the slightest notice, and not just with people. Places, foods, inanimate objects, even.’

‘Wait, aren’t you guys attached to your blades?’ said Keith suspiciously.

‘Oh, of course,’ replied Ulaz. ‘A Blade and his weapon are one, obviously. But you held on to your knife long past the point of rationality. So what I am worried about is - well, I will put it in human terms. Are you in love with Vrek?’

Keith said nothing, and only glared at the floor.

Ulaz sighed. ‘I will ask you again after you have spoken with him. Now, you may shower, eat and train. You have a clean bill of health. Thankyou.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally this five-chapter sex scene is at an end! Time to get into the emotional fallout. Also in this one Ulaz didn't die so he's been hanging out with Voltron researching these strange human creatures. 
> 
> This would have been out way earlier but I had to rewatch season 5 in order to make sure my timeline matches up as well as possible with canon, because if it doesn't I will be kicking myself for ages. So this now is happening in the what I estimate is the month or two between Keith leaving Voltron and the Naxzela episode. The more time there is between there that Keith doesn't see the Voltron crew, the better, obviously.


	12. Got A Strange Disease

Keith didn’t see Vrek at all in the intervening three quintants. In fact he strongly suspected Vrek was avoiding him, but the idea of actually asking him about it - the possibility of getting a _yes_ \- made his stomach churn, so he threw himself into training and research, picking up on lost ground while he waited. He didn’t just research heats - anything that anyone would give him information about, he read up on voraciously. Galra physiology in general, Blade of Marmora history, the known sentient races - especially those of the other half-bloods on the base.

In fact he was so deep in a document that Antok had given him about the fall of the planet Kantroosh and the subsequent exile of the Kant-Sa to the outer worlds in the system, that he barely noticed the message come up.

_Keith: It’s time we talked. Please come to the medbay after dinner this evening - Vrek._

The brevity made a big uncomfortable lump rise in Keith’s throat and for a moment he debated not going. Maybe if he stayed where he was, Vrek would come and find him? No, that led to the even more unpleasant knowledge that Vrek probably wasn’t feeling anywhere close to what Keith was right now - he’d probably completely recovered and was thinking of Keith as just another colleague. Keith swallowed hard, swiped the message to acknowledge that he’d read it, and went back to reading the history of Antok’s people.

But the time came, all too soon, and now that Keith had decided he was going to be at this meeting he damn well wasn’t going to chicken out. He found the door open and Vrek waiting for him, so he went straight in and said eloquently, ‘Uh.’

Vrek stood there, in his Blade uniform, smiling a little but with a worried crease between his brows, and Keith couldn’t help thinking of how he’d looked in the nest, breathing hard, fur dark with sweat, or laughing a little while he made sure Keith ate something and told him he’d done _So well, omega_.

Keith’s mouth went dry. He _had_ to still be on heat.

‘Hello, Keith,’ said Vrek. ‘How are you feeling? You look well.’

‘I,’ croaked Keith, swallowed and tried again. ‘Been keeping busy. You?’

‘Very much the same. I’ve been reading up on everything I missed during your heat, and on Ulaz’s report. He says you seem to be in fine health, by the way.’

‘So why are we here?’

There, Vrek’s ears went down and just for a split-second, he looked as though Keith had slapped him in the face. Keith hadn’t thought he could hate himself more but in that moment, he did. ‘Because I promised,’ Vrek said. ‘You a- were my omega and I promised that we would talk through all the implications of that which didn’t get covered before, including the reasons why I wouldn’t bite you, when we were both in more of a sound mind.’

‘What if I’m still not of sound mind?’

Vrek shrugged. ‘Then this is as good as we will get, I suppose. Don’t you want me to explain?’

‘Oh, god, yeah, I do!’ said Keith. ‘I just… I have to get something out of the way first. Can you do something for me?’

Vrek hesitated. ‘Well, I… That depends, I-’

‘Order me to do something. Doesn’t matter what, but you have to call me omega too.’ There was a short pause, and Keith hastily added, ‘It’s a test.’

Vrek’s brows went up, and he nodded. ‘Fair enough, that sounds straightforward. Omega, come in, shut the door and sit down. Now.’

Nothing. Keith looked at Vrek, at the door, back at Vrek and said, ‘No.’

Vrek nodded. ‘Well then, so I believe we now know that you are completely free of your heat and alpha commands have no effect on you. If you’d shut the door and sit down I would appreciate that, though - your liking for having discussions while standing in doorways is something I’ll never understand.’

‘That’s only two times!’ Keith shut the door behind him and sat down opposite Vrek on one of the counter chairs at the side of the room. He pretended to take a long time to get comfortable and Vrek pretended not to notice, until Keith said, ‘So… you read that part in my health thing about humans forming attachments, huh.’

‘Yes, I did.’

Keith waited for more, but there was no more, so he moved on. ‘So you were going to tell me why you wouldn’t bite me. Didn’t you want to?’

Vrek opened his mouth, hesitated, and said, ‘Obviously I _wanted_ to. There are only two other omegas on the base who have more scent glands than you do, your scent has an extremely powerful effect. As your alpha, even more so. But it wouldn’t have been a good idea.’

‘Why not?’

‘Well, to start with the most obvious answer, and the one I told you while I was in the nest, I was a temporary solution to an emergency. You clearly already have someone waiting who would make a much better bondmate for you, and while I’m glad you think I did a good job, I-’

‘Wait, _temporary_?’ Keith leaned forward in his chair. ‘ _Someone else_? You can’t mean… Shiro?’

‘Well… yes,’ said Vrek. ‘I don’t know if you know, but that man was willing to fight every Blade here to get to you.’

‘I really don’t wanna talk about the Trials, Vrek.’

Vrek pinched the bridge of his nose, but mainly to avoid Keith’s gaze for a few seconds. He looked up again and said wearily, ‘I’m afraid, at this point, we must. At least a little. Your vision of the Black Paladin walked away from you. The real thing refused to abandon you, and helped you up with far more consideration for your injuries than the illusion showed. Your assessment of how he feels for you is clearly… a little off.’

Keith sighed irritably. ‘For the last time, Shiro and me aren't ever going to be like that. He's my best friend and my only family but we’ve known each other far too long. Besides, he has someone back home.’

Vrek blinked. ‘He does?’

‘Yeah. I mean, they sort of parted on a bad note but they love each other and once Shiro gets home Adam will be ready to give him the moon if he knows what's good for him.’

Vrek frowned. ‘Will Shiro be willing to listen?’

‘Dunno,’ replied Keith,  shrugging. ‘But the point is that if Shiro is the only reason you won't bond with me then you don't _have_ a reason.’

‘That isn't remotely the only reason.’ Vrek pressed his hands to his forehead for a moment. ‘It was the reason I thought you would best understand at the time but the main reason is much more inflexible.’

‘So educate me.’

‘Bonding creates a strong psychic, well, bond, that much is obvious. In practice what it means is that you would be a part of me, and I would be a part of you.’

‘That… doesn't sound too bad,’said Keith doubtfully.

‘Keith, I know you're more intelligent than this. We Blades, we are bonded to the _mission_. Every time you say goodbye to me could be the last, do you understand? If we bonded and I died, you might never be the same again. If we were separated, the loneliness might be more than either of us could take.’

‘I’m pretty tough,’ said Keith doubtfully.

Vrek gave him an unimpressed look that would have made Kolivan proud. ‘What if I’m not?’ he said. ‘No, Keith. We are both intelligent enough to know that we can’t do this.’ He reached out and took Keith’s hand. ‘I’m flattered, I really am, and I’m sorry. But we have a war to fight. If this were peacetime I would, in a klik, but-’

‘The mission first.’ Keith’s voice came out dead, and his hand lay limp in Vrek’s. ‘Right.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘No, don’t apologise,’ replied Keith. ‘You’re right, we’re Blades. Besides, I should be used to this by now. See you around, a- Vrek.’

He turned on his heel and left nearly before Vrek realised what Keith had almost called him.

* * *

 

It was stupid and illogical. Worse than that, it _hurt_ , in a way that defied physical explanation. Oh, Galra formed attachments to one another, they even fell in love - if they didn’t, Ilun and Regris wouldn't have any context for those ridiculous soap operas they liked so much. But the way Vrek understood it, it was supposed to be a considered affair and certainly not take over all your thoughts like an ill-placed rut when you had more urgent matters to attend to. Maybe it was time to get some outside help.

After confirming with Ulaz that the human attraction tendency was not a virus and therefore not contagious, Vrek messaged Antok, on the premise that of the pair, he was slightly more intimidated by Kolivan. They met in one of the smaller hangers, where Antok was making repairs to his personal fighter.

When Vrek walked in, he found him on his back under the little stealth ship, an array of tools laid out around him and a diagnostic screen lighting up the space under the ship in bright blue. He didn’t get up to greet his visitor, just said curtly, ‘Vrek, what is this all about, that you couldn't speak to me with Kolivan in the room?’

‘I… probably could,’ admitted Vrek. ‘If I weren't such a coward.’

Antok snorted. ‘I see. Well, hand me that wrench and tell me why we’re here.’

Vrek put the wrench in Antok’s massive paw. ‘I need to know… when you and he first got together, did it… hurt?’

There was a loaded silence, and Antok glared down his chest at him. ‘I didn’t expect a medical interrogation. Do you have a decent reason for that kind of question, _Doctor_?’

‘Oh, quiznak, no, that’s not what I meant, I'm sorry!’ Vrek swiped his hands down his face, ears flat with embarrassment. ‘I mean, ugh, this is so hard to explain - did it hurt _inside_? No, I mean - not physically. In, in…’

‘In a part of you that you cannot reach, deep inside your soul.’ Vrek looked up. Antok was sitting up, with his hands on his knees, watching him. ‘Yes. It can feel like that. Is it Keith?’

Vrek nodded. ‘It doesn't make sense. The heat is over. I should have stopped feeling like this by now, I have a war to fight.’

‘If our instincts and emotions waited till we were ready for them, the race would be extinct.’ Antok picked up a plasma welder and lay back under the ship.

‘But I should have-’

‘Don’t be a fool. You know better than anyone that the textbook model is merely wishful thinking. If everyone behaved as they should, in sickness and in health, I imagine the Empire would be very easy to rule.’

Vrek sagged. There was very little he could say to argue with that, especially since it was true. There were the nice neat versions of maladies from the textbooks, and then there was real life, which was full of comorbidities and complications and rare variations and all kinds of other things apparently deliberately designed to trip a doctor up in the pursuit of his duty. ‘Antok… do you… love Kolivan?’

There was a frigid silence, but finally Antok broke it. ‘You know we rarely speak of our bond, Vrek.’

‘I know. I know this is asking a lot. But I didn’t know who else I could ask.’

‘Ah.’ The silence this time was more considered, and seemed to last forever, but Antok finally said, ‘Yes. I do love him.’

‘What does it feel like? What is it _supposed_ to feel like?’

There was a snort, and Antok selected a pair of pliers and went back under the ship. ‘There is no _supposed_. Everyone is different, so it’s different for everyone, at least I assume. How many times do you think I have loved, anyway?’

‘How many bonded pairs do we have on the base, right now this minute?’

That made Antok actually laugh, for a second. ‘You do certainly have a point. And Kolivan would hate it if you tried to have this talk with him.’

Vrek grinned. ‘Yeah, Regris told me he “delegated” halfway through telling Keith he was an omega.’

‘Oh, I know about that, he said it was one of the most unpleasant meetings he’s ever had.’ Antok picked up a new tool in his tail and transferred it under the ship. ‘So you love Keith. Will you pursue him?’

‘What? No! I know you and Kolivan are bonded but I have no idea how you live with the strain. No, it has to pass eventually.’

‘And if it doesn't? You don't have to bite him.’ Antok sighed. ‘If you love him then you should at least tell him so once, so that he can have a chance to react honestly. Wallowing in your own emotions will make you distracted and miserable.’

‘You don't know how… bitey he got in heat. It would never work.’

‘I suppose it is up to you, then. Any more questions? Because I'm about to turn on the cutting torch.’

‘No. Thanks, Antok.’

His only reply was the roar of the cutting torch, but he certainly had a lot to think about as he left the hangar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is keeping warm in this horrendous weather! Thankyou for all your lovely comments, you are making me live. I'm specially gratified to see how many people like Vrek! Honestly, if you're writing fanfic and people like your OC then you know you're doing OK. <3 to y'all!
> 
> BTW in this fic Shiro and Adam are split up and Adam is dead but *Keith* doesn't know that.


	13. Don't Piss Off The Doctor

Keith had thought he could avoid this, but when he failed to respond to Ulaz's message, Ulaz promptly came and found him. He sat down across from Keith at lunch and Keith immediately hunched up around his bowl. Not that there was any use in being defensive - he wasn't getting out of this.

‘Hello, Keith,’ said Ulaz. ‘If you have a reason why you ignored my message, I would love to hear it.’ 

A couple of the people around them grimaced, but Keith either didn't see or took no notice. ‘Bad… signal?’ he said innocently.

Ulaz's expression could have given most cliff faces a run for their money in stony immovability. ‘Our communications systems can reach most of the way across the known universe. Internal communication is _nothing_. You know as well as I do that a “bad signal” inside the base would be the cause of all-out concern.’

‘It's true,’ said Ganda from beside Keith.

Keith gave her a look that suggested that her behaviour during Keith’s pre-heat had been forgiven but could be unforgiven at any time. ‘Hey Ganda, a little privacy, please?’

‘You _are_ in the middle of the lunchroom.’

‘Which would not need to have happened if you had simply shown up in the medbay when I asked you the first time,’ said Ulaz. ‘Like an _adult_ , and not a child who runs from his problems.’

‘Hey, I'll have you know when I was a kid I tried to _fight_ all my problems. This is _progress_.’

‘By the ancestors... Well, aside from that, you will finish your meal and then I will escort you to the medbay, since you cannot be relied upon to come when summoned.’

Keith ate in sullen silence, as slowly as he dared, until Ulaz poked the bowl and snapped, ‘A little quicker, please.’ Keith made a face, but didn't argue.

He followed Ulaz to the medbay with the air of a prisoner going to his death, and as the door closed behind them, Ulaz said sharply, ‘First of all, that was an extremely childish display of cowardice and defiance that I would not expect from any Blade and I don't want to see it from you again, do I make myself clear?’

‘Yes, sir,’ mumbled Keith.

‘Now,’ said Ulaz, his tone noticeably more gentle now. ‘First of all, I need you to be aware that I'm not your enemy. I want to help you.’

Keith nodded, but still wouldn't look Ulaz in the face.

Ulaz suppressed a sigh; it was probably the best he would get. ‘Keith. You have spoken to Vrek, yes?’

‘You already _know_ that.’

This time Ulaz did sigh, just a little. ‘Yes, but I thought you might want some input.’

‘Why don't you just tell me what you know.’

Ulaz decided he'd had enough, but managed to keep his face and voice entirely calm. ‘No, I think _you_ should tell _me_.’

Keith folded his arms and scowled at him. ‘What if I don't?’

Ulaz shrugged. ‘Then that is your choice. I assume you need no further help and have no further questions?’

Keith hesitated, then noticeably sagged. ‘Fine. Yes, I talked to Vrek. He… doesn't want me and even if he did  we’re Blades and we’re at war and the mission comes first. We’ve been at war for ten thousand years, do you just not do anything and say you’re going to wait for the war to be over? It might never _be_ over! We might _lose_!’

‘Our mission still comes first, whatever your feelings for anyone else. Do you want to court him? Then make sure the war is won in time that you can.’

Keith opened his mouth, and then shut it again. After a pause, he said, ‘I don't think he wants me to.’

Ulaz let pity crack his normally stern exterior. Humans seemed to reach out desperately in all directions for connections, and the first clumsy connection this one had attempted here on the base had been rejected. ‘I'm sorry,’ he said. ‘It will get easier.’

‘Yeah,’ said Keith shortly. ‘What do I do when he goes into rut?’

‘You don't have the experience to help him with a rut,’ said Ulaz and Keith nodded, chewing on a hangnail. ‘So you need to stay well away from his quarters for the duration. I will let you know when.’

‘How long?’ asked Keith.

‘Probably about a movement and a half,’ replied Ulaz. ‘I will let Kolivan and the other senior Blades know you need as many distractions as possible.’

‘Oh _fuck_ ,’ said Keith, pushing his hands into his hair. ‘Sounds painful but fine, yeah, it’ll probably help. Thanks. H-’ He stopped.

Ulaz waited. Finally he said, ‘Yes?’

‘How is he?’

‘You haven't seen him?’

‘Not since we talked.’

‘Oh. Well, he’s… quiet, as much as one can tell with Vrek. But I think he is well, he is going about his tasks with the same diligence as usual. Shall I tell him you asked after him?’

‘Oh, god, no. He'll think I'm pining.’

Ulaz raised his brows. ‘You _are_. But I can see why you wouldn't want him to know. Well then… anything else?’

‘Is this going to happen every time?’ said Keith miserably.

Ulaz gave an expansive shrug. ‘I can't say. I will try and synthesize some heat suppressants that will work for you, I feel that might be kinder than this level of emotional turmoil. Are all humans like this?’

‘Honestly I don't know,’ said Keith. ‘I don't think so. Humans don't go into heat. You said humans are extra-clingy with basically everything?’

‘That's paraphrasing me rather dramatically, but yes.’

‘Yeah, so I think that combined with galra heats means I'm essentially fucked.’

Ulaz took a moment to parse this, and then said, ‘Yes. Yes, I'm sorry but you might be right. I'll do my best to help you, Keith.’

Keith nodded. ‘Yeah, thanks Ulaz.’

‘It's my job. You may go.’

* * *

 

Vrek was thinking about Keith, as he always seemed to be lately. It was late, and he should have been sleeping, but he’d woken with a feeling that something was wrong, he’d made a mistake, the base was under attack because of something Vrek had done, or not done, either way it was his fault and-

The sleep mists cleared and he realised he’d been dreaming, although his memory of it slipped away when he attempted to remember, leaving only fear and adrenaline and the echo of Keith’s dying scream. 

He lay back, trying to calm his breathing, running mundane stats in his head. _Galra resting bloodpusher rate is between eighty and one hundred and twenty pushes per dobosh. Altean heart rate is between forty and seventy beats per dobosh. Aardru processor_ _rhythm is twelve strokes per dobosh, per processor, or fifteen if_ _subject has only two processors. Human heart rate is-_

Vrek stopped, staring at the roof of his bunk. Human heart rate was a thing he knew, but every time he tried to think the cold fact it was crowded out by the memory of Keith - a little warmer than human, his heart beating a little faster than a human heart should against Vrek's chest.

_Alpha…_

Vrek groaned and pushed a hand between his legs, figuring that he'd already lost so he might as well try and get some good out of tonight. His hand was no substitute for Keith's tight heat, but he could almost hear him in the back of his mind as slick started to ease his touch.

_Can I? I just want to touch you. Yeah, right there, alpha, put your back into it, I'm not made of glass._

He'd had so many doubts and been so scared, and yet he'd placed his trust in Vrek completely and flung himself into the mouth of the heat with a defiance that echoed in everything he did.

_I can't bear it, please, I need you, c’mon, you can't keep me waiting like this, alpha, alpha please just knot me, oh god…_

Vrek arched off the bed, hand covered in jizz and slick. No knot, but that was natural since he wasn’t with an omega in heat. As he cleaned himself up he though what he would do if they weren't at war. He'd keep Keith so safe, he decided. He would never have had to become this thing which had to defend himself at every turn. He'd want for nothing and always be happy.

Well, all the more reason to win this war, thought Vrek as he folded himself back into bed, and then his eyes snapped open and he groaned loudly as he realised he'd gone into pre-heat at least ten quintents early.

He sighed, picked up his tablet and sent a message to Ulaz.

* * *

 

‘He’s avoiding me.’

‘And you're moping. What of it?’ Regris leaned back until he was hanging upside-down in his chair, regarding Keith quizzically through the data screen in front of him.

‘What if he hates me now?’

Aardru, and most of their hybrids, were slit-eyed as snakes and so it was difficult for Regris to roll his eyes but he managed it for Keith. ‘Have you even _tried_ to ask him?’

‘How can I ask him anything if I can't find him?’ Keith curled up tighter in his ball of defensive unhappiness and added another layer to the fortress walls.

The things Regris put up with for friendship. Keith had been spending his free time here every quintent for the past three quintents like a scowling black stormcloud. Regris had heard that Ulaz had forbidden him from trying to thrash out his feelings in training, mainly because too many people were getting hurt, and it was starting to be stupid. Which meant he’d begun to hide in here with Regris and Ilun, and while he didn't actively disrupt anything, the mood had become oppressive. After the first quintent, Ilun had taken to working elsewhere, not that Regris could blame her.

‘Have you even messaged him?’ he asked, pulling himself upright.

‘Hmph.’

Regris chose to take that as a yes. ‘ _And_? What did he _say_?’

‘You’re talking like he said anything. He didn’t even read it. He hates me and doesn't want anything to do with me.’

Regris groaned and muttered something that Keith's translator picked up, after a slight lag, as, ‘All the bastard fucking squid on Denka drown me…’ Then he looked at Keith and said wearily, ‘I am going to fix this for you, because we're friends. But if I do, you have to either stop hanging out in here all the time, or stop acting like a black hole of misery and hate when you do. Are all humans like this when they're in love? How does the species _survive_?’

Keith let the corner of his mouth twitch up a bit. ‘No, I'm just a disaster human. I mean, of course I am, I'm an alien.’

‘Fair.’

‘You don't have to fix anything for me, I'll get out of your… scales.’

Regris shrugged. ‘I can at least make Vrek check his messages.’ He turned to his screen and typed:

_VREK: URGENT - CHECK YOUR MESSAGES - REGRIS_

‘There. Done. Now go and get something to eat before I rope you in to help with my next heat.’

Keith practically ran for it.

* * *

 

Keith’s tablet buzzed and he picked it up instantly.

_Keith: Apologies for the lack of a prompt reply, I am in pre-rut and have been letting Ulaz handle my personal messages. No, I am not avoiding you, at least any more than I would avoid any other omega at this point in my cycle, but I must ask only that you afford me the same courtesy that I did before you started your heat. I am not, and cannot be, your alpha. I am sorry. - Vrek_

Vrek was going into rut. He didn't want Keith to ask about it and in fact he'd very likely chosen a partner already. A partner who wasn't Keith - of course he’d expected that, Ulaz had told him as much, but it was still like a punch in the chest to read it like that. He typed a quick reply.

_Vrek: I wasn’t meaning that you should be, just checking that I hadn’t fucked up and made you mad at me or something. Hope your rut goes well, see you on the other side, I guess. - Keith_

Not thinking about Vrek in rut was easy, if only because Keith had no idea what an alpha in rut actually looked like. But imagining Vrek with another omega - Ilun, maybe, or Keenwar - was all too easy and it made Keith’s heart hurt. The new message beep sounded on his tablet before he could be dragged down into the pit of his own misery, and he almost didn’t dare look. He didn’t know whether to be happy or sad that it wasn’t from Vrek.

_Keith: I have been informed that you require something to keep your mind off recent events. Report to me in my office as soon as you get this message. - Kolivan_

Keith sighed. Thank fuck for that, he thought. Maybe now he’d actually have something else to think about and be able to forget about Vrek properly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Keith is avoidant, defensive and combative and generally just bad at feels, and everybody else has to cope with it. It's like living with a badly-socialised feral cat. Feral cats don't like medical visits that are for their own good, either.


	14. Couldn't Stay Away

‘I want you to understand that, were you any other Blade behaving in such a way, I would send you to unload cargo by yourself until you knew to control yourself better,’ said Kolivan sternly. Keith stood to attention, arms at his sides, and said nothing at all. ‘But Ulaz has told me that due to your heritage, you are something of a special case, and he - and now a few other people too - have asked me to give you something to distract yourself, so that you don’t make yourself and everyone else on the base miserable.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Kolivan looked Keith up and down. The smallest Blade by quite a long way, yet so determined and full of fight - strange that such a small thing should cripple him like this. He sighed. ‘Follow me.’

He led Keith to the hangar, to a small cruiser, where a stocky Blade in a toolbelt was waiting for them. ‘Ulaz has told me that the last time he spoke with the black paladin he mentioned you had an interest in hobby engineering?’

‘Well, I dunno about that, I used to look after Shiro’s hoverbike, I-’

‘Good enough. Schippa, keep him busy, if he refuses to obey orders you have permission to discipline him up to level five. If he shows real distress call Ulaz.’

‘Yes sir!’ said the strange Blade.

‘I will leave him in your hands.’ Then Kolivan turned on his heel and left.

Keith stared at his retreating back, then turned to face his new captor. She grinned at him, and he smiled back, or at least showed teeth.

‘Er. Hi.’

‘Hi,’ said Schippa. ‘So you’re Keith, hm? Well, I suppose it’s my own fault I haven’t seen you before, I hardly ever come out of the engine rooms.’

Keith suddenly remembered the name from Vrek’s list and blurted out, ‘You’re an omega.’

There was a pause, and Schippa raised an eyebrow. ‘Yeeees. Yes I am. You know it’s not polite to just blurt that out like that.’

‘Sorry.’

‘So how _do_ you know that?’

‘Got given a list of everyone on base, back before my heat,’ replied Keith.

‘Ah.’ Another uncomfortable pause, then Schippa visibly brushed it off and handed Keith a toolbelt like her own. ‘Well, come on, we have a lot to do today. This one’s a fourth-generation Galra "Dart" fighter, ZXA-class, we stole it from a destroyer four decaphoebs ago. They’re on the seventh generation now, so we need to build up the insides a bit so this baby can keep up. Think you can do that?’

‘Uh… no. To be honest the most I’ve ever done is keep a hoverbike running and maintain a lion that I’m pretty sure was fixing itself.’

Schippa laughed. ‘Right. That’s fine. Just do what I tell you to do and we’ll do just fine.’

If Keith was honest with himself, he was glad of the distraction - the work was both meticulous and heavy and there was sweat pouring down the back of his neck within the varga, but it was also interesting and satisfying in the same way as a good hard training session.

Schippa turned out to be a brisk, no-nonsense person with a dry sense of humour, whose company was surprisingly pleasant once Keith got used to her refusal to allow him to acknowledge Vrek's existence in any capacity, ever.

‘No, but look, he _does_ exist,’ he said, smacking a rivet perhaps a little harder than necessary.

‘Never heard of him,’ replied Schippa airily. ‘Don't let me see you getting sloppy with that rivet setter, kit. That's how you get burst seams.’

‘But he's _on this base_ , he's a _medic_ , he's-’

‘A figment of your imagination and I don't want to hear any more about it.’ Keith sighed, but shut up. Schippa smirked infuriatingly and handed him a tool he'd never seen before in his life. ‘Now we have that dealt with, let's upgrade the main yadhiz generator.’

‘The… what?’ Keith blinked at the thing in his hand. ‘Uh. Schippa, I… don't think we have these on Earth.’

‘No?’ There was a short pause, then Schippa said, ‘I should think not. Well done, you just passed the test.’

‘Test.’

‘Yeah, you know, “Oh of _course_ I know what this is, I switched out yadhiz generators all the time back home, I could do it with two rusty nails and a defective soldering iron!”’

‘Riiiight,’ said Keith, weighing the thing in his hand. It had a handle with a switch, and when he pressed the button, the opposite end produced an almost solid aura of sonic vibrations. He looked flatly at Schippa. ‘It's a sex toy, isn't it?’

Schippa snorted. ‘What? No, we’re all sexless androids here, I don't know where you got that idea.’ She took it back and turned it off. ‘Good guess, though, if I'd remembered you might think that was what it was I wouldn't have given you the cleaner for Regris’s tank filter.’

‘And I assume there's no such thing as yadhiz generators?’

‘Well, it’s a battery company from Deribis, but otherwise no.’

Keith couldn't suppress a snort of laughter at that. ‘Alright, so what _are_ we doing now?’

Schippa handed him a pair of telescopic goggles and the smallest screwdriver Keith had ever seen. ‘Fine surgery,’ she said, and he groaned.

That night, Keith stumbled to bed in an exhausted stupor and fell asleep almost as soon as he hit the mattress. He didn't even dream.

* * *

 

Schippa kept Keith busy as much as she could, but she couldn't be in the hangar all twenty vargas of the quintent. When there was no work to do, Keith was turned loose - most of the time he went to bother Regris, but sometimes, far too often, he found himself wandering the corridors.

On the fifth quintent since this had started, he found himself pacing the halls once more - Regris had shut him out with a brusque ‘Sorry Keith, I’m busy’ and he’d tried to train, only to find that the training simulations would only go up to level six, and shut down after two vargas. Trying to get other Blades to spar with him was fruitless - apparently they all had orders not to, until he was more predictable.

And so he was aimlessly drifting around the base once more. He caught himself before he got too close to the medic's living quarters, turned himself around and went back to his room. Not that it was anywhere near time to sleep, but he needed somewhere to pace uninterrupted. How long would it be now? Who was sharing Vrek's rut?

Before Keith could stop himself, he had his tablet in his hand.

_Ulaz: How is he? - Keith_

There was no reply. Keith sighed and headed out to the kitchen to find something to eat. He couldn't help thinking about that day when he'd been in pre-heat, when Vrek had stood in the middle of the dining area and spoken with such authority, Keith's alpha without a doubt. And Keith had obeyed him, it had made him feel safe.

He realised belatedly that he'd been so deep in thought that he'd been letting his feet go where they would, and now he was nowhere near the kitchens. In fact, his steps had led him straight back to the door of the medical quarters. He groaned and went to turn away, but then the door opened and he was rooted to the spot.

Vrek stared down at him, eyes wide. He was dressed, but his clothes were rumpled, as if he'd dressed in a hurry. His hair stuck to his forehead and the glands that Keith could see stood out, bright and almost sticky with scent.

Keith's tablet chimed in his pocket. He ignored it.

‘I… Omega?’ whispered Vrek, and Keith noted the darkness under his eyes, the hollowness of his cheeks and the tension in the set of his ears. Whoever had been his omega didn't deserve the title and he was going to take it from them, mission be damned.

‘Yeah,’ he said softly, reaching up to touch Vrek's face. ‘I'm here, alpha. What h- _ugh_!-’

Before Keith could register what was happening, Vrek had reached out, lightning-fast and dragged him into his arms. Keith was engulfed in his scent - bright, sharp, clear, a lot muskier than he remembered - and then there was a pain in the side of his neck. Vrek had bitten him.

He was distantly aware of someone shouting, but couldn't bring himself to care. Vrek was licking and kissing the wound and Keith just closed his eyes, petting the damp purple hair and drifting in the sensation that someone had reached out and anchored him into their own soul. That… that was a hell of a thing. Finally, he thought, or maybe Vrek thought. He couldn't tell. Amazing, that anyone could possibly love him this much… He wouldn’t have believed it, but now he was surrounded in it, and overwhelmed by it, and breathing it in, and it wasn’t a thing to be believed, but known.

The complete peace, but not the bond, was broken when someone smacked them both smartly round the back of the head, and Vrek looked up. Keith winced at the loss, but he looked up too, into the face of an extremely exasperated Ulaz.

‘At last! I hope you're both aware you're in a great deal of trouble. Keith, I ordered you to stay away.’

‘I.’ Keith looked at Vrek, who flattened his ears, pulled Keith tight against himself and snarled at Ulaz. ‘It was an accident? Really, I was headed for the kitchen and I wasn't looking. Vrek… hey, alpha, shh, don't threaten Ulaz, he's just trying to keep us safe, you know that.’

To Keith's surprise, Vrek glanced at Ulaz, then turned his face into Keith's hair to breathe him in.

‘Uh… Ulaz? Is he OK? Why isn't he talking? Shouldn't there be, you know, an omega looking after him right now?’

Ulaz sighed heavily. ‘You’d better bring him in. Things have been… tense around here just lately.’

Keith nodded and rubbed a hand up and down Vrek's back. ‘Vrek? Hey, alpha, can you walk for me? I could probably carry you but-’

‘No!’ Vrek, a little glassy-eyed but smiling, scooped Keith up, and if Keith laughed like a happy newlywed, what of it? He was happy, impending punishment regardless. ‘My job.’

‘Alright, your job,’ said Keith, ignoring Ulaz's hopeless expression in his peripheral. ‘That way, then.’

He managed to persuade Vrek to sit down on the couch in the medic's lounge, but not to let him go - that was fine with Keith, so he curled up in Vrek's lap like a cat and said, ‘So what's been going on? Where's his omega?’

Ulaz collapsed into the seat opposite. ‘You should have stayed away. I knew this would happen.’

‘Why won't you-’ Keith was only aware he'd raised his voice when Vrek pushed him down, snarling at Ulaz and shielding Keith with his body. ‘Woah - alpha, it's OK, I'm fine, I'm sorry I worried you, don't attack Ulaz, shh, just calm down…’ Keith reached up and petted Vrek's ears, trying to calm him, her him to focus.

Vrek gradually turned to look at him, and Keith smiled and nodded. Slowly, ever so slowly, Vrek sat up, pulling Keith with him into his arms. ‘That’s it,’ Keith softly. Carefully quiet, he said, ‘Ulaz, if you don't think I deserve to know what's been happening that's up to you. But I know something's wrong and it's a bit late to take it back.’

‘Yes,’ said Ulaz. ‘I suppose you do. First of all, he has no omega.’

Keith had to make an effort to modulate his voice, and still he could feel Vrek's worry spike in the back of his mind, the rumbling growl felt more than heard against his clavicle. He shushed Vrek and tried to push calm back across the bond, even as he asked, ‘Why not? Is that common?’

‘Almost unheard-of. But he tried several omegas and none could induce the proper response. He reacted to all of them as threats, and then it was too late. The best we could do was confine him to quarters with a rotation of betas and keep dosing him with hormonal suppressants.’

Keith pushed down the wave of anger. Instead he pulled his tablet out of his pocket and read the message. Then he read it aloud. ‘“Keith: Vrek is perfectly well, rut proceeding normally. Stay away from medic's quarters till I tell you otherwise. Ulaz.” He's clearly _not_ fine and this _isn't_ normal. Why didn't you tell me?’

‘You know perfectly well why I didn’t tell you,’ replied Ulaz flatly. ‘In hindsight it feels as if maybe we were delaying the inevitable, but I had orders. As did you, as you may recall.’

Keith rolled his eyes. ‘I told you. I was heading to the kitchen but I was thinking about… something else and not really paying attention and the next thing I know I ended up here. I’m sorry. Besides, if he’s still on his rut how did he get out?’

Ulaz’s brows shot up. ‘Do you honestly think - actually, no, you probably don’t know how badly it would have gone if we’d actually attempted to _restrain_ him. It was hard enough keeping him from becoming aggressive and harming himself, I suspect when you got close enough he picked up your scent. If I’d tried to stop him he would absolutely have tried to kill me. Normally Vrek is no challenge for me in a fair fight but in rut… if I got between him and his omega? There would be no contest.’

Vrek made a satisfied little growl in Ulaz’s direction. _Damn right_. Keith kissed him on the temple, shushed him and kept stroking his hair. ‘So who else is here? Just you? Why just you?’

Ulaz went to stand up - at the movement Vrek snarled suddenly, baring his teeth, his fur bristling. Carefully, Ulaz sat down again, and Vrek, watching his every movement, returned to his previous position. ‘Keith, if you ask your alpha, I believe he will bring something for us to drink. Could you do that? Clearly I am not going to be allowed to run that errand myself.’

‘Uh, OK. Alpha, we’re thirsty, could you get some drinks for us? For all of us?’

The reaction was immediate. Vrek brightened, went to put Keith down on the couch, but then his face darkened and he glanced at Ulaz. Keith laughed and reached up to kiss the downturned lips. ‘You can trust Ulaz! It’s fine, nothing will happen to me, I promise, Ulaz will stay over there and I will stay right here. We just need drinks, and so do you, I bet. Please, alpha?’

There was a pause, then Vrek finally let himself cross the room long enough to bring back an armful of vitamin drink pouches, and also a handful of protein bars. All of these he dropped in Keith’s lap with the air of a labrador presenting his owner with a dead raccoon, and then curled up beside him.

Keith looked at the anxious set of his alpha’s ears and beamed. ‘Excellent, thankyou so much,’ he said. ‘You take such good care of me.’ He passed Ulaz a protein bar and a drink pouch, then climbed back into Vrek’s lap and opened one of the bars himself. ‘I’m not going to eat until you do, though. How do you get that thin in one movement?’

‘He’s been expending a lot of energy,’ said Ulaz mildly, watching Vrek open one of the protein bars and take a bite. Keith gave Ulaz a Look and he raised a hand placatingly. ‘Oh, no, not in the way you’re thinking - in fact it would have been less concerning if he _had_ even attempted to mate normally. But he wouldn’t respond to anyone, and simply got more and more distressed, training more than he should have - that’s a thing you have in common, I think - and pacing the equator of Daibazaal in his room.’ He took a drink to give himself a moment’s thinking space. ‘It seems part of him had already decided you were his omega. I… don’t know how or why. It’s not exactly something that happens often, although there is occasional precedent.’

‘And the suppressants?’ said Keith icily. ‘Are they why he’s so dopey now?’

‘No, that’s the rut,’ said Ulaz. ‘If we hadn’t given him the suppressants I believe he would have tried to tear the walls down looking for you.’

There was a speculative silence - partly necessitated by the fact that if Keith stopped eating, so did Vrek, and so Keith had to carefully gauge the rate at which he ate so that he didn’t finish before Vrek. When they’d both finished, he looked at Ulaz and said, ‘So what now? If you tell me to leave I am absolutely taking him with me. You can’t make me leave him behind now.’

‘Oh, quiznak, no,’ said Ulaz. ‘In fact, I can’t let you leave. Kolivan will be furious but I feel even he will have to admit something like this would have happened eventually. I estimate he has at least one quintent left of his rut - but with these circumstances I could be wildly wrong. I _strongly_ advise you not to bite him in return until you can hear what he has to say on the matter.’

Keith rolled his eyes. ‘Do you honestly think that poorly of me? Don’t answer that. I’m not gonna bite him. And Kolivan can be mad as he likes, he can’t undo this and right now I don’t care what he does to me.’

Vrek growled and Keith jumped - Vrek had been so quiet that Keith had almost forgotten he was there. He smiled and scratched the base of the strangely catlike ears and Vrek pressed his face against the bitten gland and inhaled hard. Keith gasped, both at the sting and the sudden swell of _safeloveprotect_ that came with it.

‘Easy,’ he murmured, petting the back of Vrek’s head. ‘Come on, alpha, let’s go to bed and you can finish your rut off properly. We’re right in a public place here, Ulaz doesn’t want to watch this. Gonna show me your nest, alpha?’

In the corner of his eye, he saw Ulaz open his mouth to say something, and then stop. It didn’t matter. Vrek kissed the bite mark, then lifted him up and carried him away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys knew this would happen, right? Right. Poor Ulaz, is all I can say.


	15. This Is So Not Regulation

Vrek’s room was very much like Keith's, with the pit in the middle uncovered and filled with rumpled, but so far as Keith could see clean, bedding. Still, the moment Keith saw it there was something he strongly wanted to do.

‘Vrek? Alpha? Put me down, if I don't make that bed right now I'm going to go crazy.’

Vrek set him carefully on his feet, and he set about making the nest neat again, shaking every piece of bed linen out and making the nest up perfectly. He was the omega here, after all - who had better judgement than he did? Kneeling on the smooth bedcover, he looked up at Vrek and saw by his expression he was right. Vrek was staring at him with an awestruck longing look, like he couldn't quite believe Keith was real.

Keith smiled and extended both hands. ‘Come here, alpha. Can't have a proper nest with just one.’

Vrek stumbled into the nest and into Keith's arms, immediately burying his face against the still-weeping bite mark. Keith hissed and Vrek sat up, waves of concern coming through the bond.

Keith laughed and pulled him closer again. ‘It's fine, it just stings a little, specially with my shirt on. Oh, hey, that’s a good point.’ He peeled off the top half of his uniform and cuddled close again.

Vrek seemed a lot calmer and more comprehensible when they were touching - he was probably having an overload of rut hormones, but Keith didn't know nearly as much about them or how to manage them. After a second's thought he pulled out his tablet and sent a message.

_ Ulaz: OK, what now? I'm kind of flying blind here. - Keith _

The reply came almost instantly, Keith felt Vrek bristle against him and shushed him, stroking his fur as he read.

_ Keith: I'm compiling as fast as I can. In the meantime, make sure he knows you are safe, don't get out of his sight. Keep him occupied and don't let him think about risks. - Ulaz _

Alright, that sounded simple enough, but when Keith looked at Vrek, he was staring at him with anxious, wide eyes, and Keith could feel the fear pooling in the back of Vrek's mind.

‘Wow, this bond is really something,’ he said softly. ‘Gonna say something, alpha? There's nothing here that can hurt me, I promise. I've got you, right?’

‘I… might fail,’ rasped Vrek, his gaze dropping.

‘Not a chance,’ said Keith softly. ‘So tell me, is this gonna be another three-quintent sex fest like the heat? Because I could have used the runup, if so.’

Vrek just stared at him in confusion, and Keith started to wonder exactly how fogged up Vrek was right now. Had he been this bad? He shifted position - Vrek's breath hitched anxiously as he did, but he settled again as Keith drew him in again with his head close to the rapidly-healing bite wound. It was easy, touching like this, to feel Vrek's mind, his emotions fogged beneath a thick morass of… something that Keith couldn't identify, but whatever it was it was banked up, heavy and clogging and he had a feeling that it wasn't supposed to be like that, even in rut.

‘You should let some of that out. It doesn't look good for you.’

‘Can't,’ said Vrek thickly. 

‘Sure you can. What's the worst that could happen now?’

That was a bad thing to say. Something burst with awful clarity from the fog, the image of Keith at Vrek's feet, lifeless, blood pouring from his throat and down Vrek's chin.

‘NO!’ Vrek slammed keith onto his back, ears flat and teeth bared - somehow at  _ himself _ , Keith thought. But there was no time to speculate, because while he was being held down hard enough that he'd find it hot any other day, Vrek was absolutely having a panic attack.

He could deal with this. Shiro had panic attacks all the time. Keith reached up as best he could with two strong hands holding his biceps in place, and placed a hand where he estimated Vrek's heart was. He couldn't feel a heartbeat, but that was fine.

‘Vrek. Alpha, you should breathe. Come on now, can you hear me alpha? Just breathe, follow my hand, one, two, three, four, five… And in again, two, three, four, five. Out, two, three, four, five…’

He kept on going, drawing his hand up and down Vrek's torso as he talked in as calm, as even a voice as he could manage, and for a moment he started to think that Vrek wouldn't come down, but gradually his breathing steadied. His heartbeat, which Keith had located somewhere in the region of his liver, to his bafflement, was far too rapid still, but maybe that was normal for galra, or for ruts. And the vice grip keeping him down on the mattress slackened and Vrek sagged back on his heels, making little hitching gasping sounds. When Keith looked at his face, he was crying, the fur on his cheeks wet with tears.

But it didn't stop, Vrek just kept on crying, when Keith reached out to touch his cheek he flinched violently, then looked up and said, ‘I'm sorry.’

‘No, don't be,’ said Keith.

‘I'm a terrible alpha.’

‘You're the perfect alpha. It's me, my weird human attachment thing fucked us both over. I'm the crappiest omega.’

‘No!’ Vrek's voice raised, but then he lowered it again, voice trembling a little, tears still streaming down his face. ‘No. Don't ever say that.’

‘Okay,’ said Keith. ‘You know I never saw a galra cry before. I think it's doing you good.’

Vrek scrubbed his face with his wrist. ‘Warriors shouldn't show weakness. Quiznak, I can't  _ stop _ !’

‘Hey. Hey, don't worry about it, it's good, I think.’ Keith caught Vrek's hand and pressed a kiss to the palm. There was a chime from his pocket and Vrek's ears pricked anxiously at the sound, but Keith ignored it. ‘Hey, no, that's not important, I need you to listen to me.’

‘But I…’ Vrek glanced round for the source of the sound again, and Keith sighed.

He pulled his tablet out of his pocket and waved it in the air. ‘Look, it's just Ulaz sending me everything I need to know about ruts and bonding. Oh, look, he's asking if there's anything we need, because that's what betas do, right? Bring food and supplies to alphas and omegas in rut or heat so they don't have to leave the nest. You told me about that. Shall I tell him food, drinks, some of those tube things that you gave me for my throat, cleaning supplies?’

There was a long, tense pause, then Vrek said, ‘Medigel. Compact scanner pods. Oleramelarin. Decalex.’

‘You're going to have to spell those last two for me.’

Another pause, then, ‘Can't. Make a guess, he'll know. Oh, and string lights.’

Keith's fingers hesitated in their dance for a moment, and he looked up at Vrek and smiled. ‘You sap.’ When he was done typing, he stripped down to his underwear and tugged at Vrek's rumpled shirt. ‘Come on, take this off. I don't care if the no clothes in the nest rule is just for heats, I think we need to be touching. I think it's helping.’

‘Like the crying?’ said Vrek, pulling his shirt off and then, after a second, his pants, and sliding under the comforter beside Keith.

‘Just like the crying,’ said Keith. ‘I don't know what's up with you and I don't know much about ruts but that doesn't look right. It looks like… Fuck, I don't have words.’ Something occurred to him and he snorted a laugh, making Vrek stare at him in bewilderment.

‘What? What’s funny?’

‘Oh, nothing, I just realised what Lance would say. He’d say you had a well-known condition called “too much feels”.’

Vrek just blinked at him. Keith laughed and kissed him, and wiped the tears from his cheeks. ‘It's fine, you'll get your head round it later. In the meantime I really need to speed-read this thing Ulaz sent me. Is that OK?’

Vrek nodded mutely and Keith retrieved his tablet, reading as fast as he could, until the door chimed - he winced even as he heard the snarl from behind him, but kept his voice as casual and even as he could as he said, ‘Alpha, it's fine, it's only Ulaz, he's being a perfect beta, if you go and open that door he won't even be there, go look, I promise I'm not going anywhere.’

Vrek’s eyes searched Keith’s face, but Keith only smiled and nodded. Vrek whined, but Keith kissed him on the forehead and wrapped himself up in the comforter, so Vrek finally stood up and headed to the door. He looked back once or twice, but Keith was still there, calmly reading his tablet. 

The snarling alpha display would have been impressively terrifying to whoever was on the other side of the door, but unfortunately there was nobody to see it - only, as Keith had predicted, a trunk, and the room beyond was empty of people. Vrek pulled the trunk in and looked back to Keith, who was still peacefully reading, then locked the door.

‘There, see?’ said Keith brightly. ‘Nothing to worry about.’

Vrek said nothing, only opened the trunk - apparently to check that invaders hadn't hidden themselves inside - and, once satisfied, pulled it over to the nest.

‘Got everything?’ asked Keith.

Vrek nodded and produced a tube, for a moment Keith thought it was toothpaste, then Vrek flipped the cap off and squeezed a clear, bluish gel onto his fingers and he was sure it was lube. But Vrek cupped his jaw in the other hand and tilted it up - Keith obeyed without a word, and as the cool, soothing stuff was smeared carefully over the bite wound he understood.

‘Oh, this is medigel?’

‘Mm. Hold still.’

‘OK. Feels good.’ Keith waited till Vrek had released his chin and capped the tube before he looked down again. ‘So according to this, any kind of non-aggressive emotional release is probably good for you right now.’

Vrek's brow creased with thought, and Keith gave a huff of laughter. ‘Right, better let me do the thinking right now.’

He leaned up and crushed his mouth against Vrek's. There was a moment of surprised hesitation, and then strong arms pulled him in tight and Vrek was kissing back. 

‘Missed you,’ muttered Vrek against Keith’s lips and then he wasn’t allowed to talk again, only kiss, but that was fine - he could feel the cloying stickiness of whatever it was that was messing up Vrek’s head, but now it was starting to move a little. Whether it was thinning, it was too soon to tell, so Keith climbed into Vrek’s lap and licked the gland on the side of his head. 

There was the momentary taste of something sickly sweet with almost bitter undertones; Keith was vaguely aware that it shouldn’t taste like that, and Vrek was moaning, and then the fog grabbed him and attempted to claw him under.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another kinda short chapter but hey, them's the (dramatic) breaks. I'm warning you now, there's very likely not going to be an extended multi-chapter sex scene for Vrek's rut, if only because I'd like to finish this fanfic some time this millenium. There are sequels waiting, you know.
> 
> Once again, Ulaz puts up with so much, but the hardest thing about this chapter was writing Keith in character because canon Keith is an inarticulate little monster who couldn't empathise his way out of a wet paper bag.
> 
> Oh, yeah, and in case you're curious, Oleramelarin is those throat-soothing tube things, and Decalex is the energy pills Vrek took to keep up with Keith when he was in heat.


	16. Disobeying Orders

_Focus_. Keith shut his eyes and concentrated on his own breathing, centering in his head the things he knew for sure. _I am Keith Kogane. Here I am, I’m not going anywhere. I love you._

The fog roiled and got thicker - Keith was vaguely aware that Vrek was holding him a little too tightly for comfort, and the noise in his head was deafening. All Vrek’s warring emotions were churning up with the chemicals of the rut and it was a wonder he could think at all, the only thing Keith could make out was a faint, strangled, _You can’t, I can’t, we can’t._

He closed his eyes and grabbed at it anyway, as if trying to reach a drowning man in a stormy ocean. ‘We can do anything we want,’ he said aloud, and licked Vrek’s neck gland again. Vrek keened and pushed his fingers painfully tight into Keith’s hair. Now there was something else, something strong and true rising through the fog - a powerful sense of _want_.

Keith sucked the gland a little and the _want_ became _need_ \- everything in Vrek’s mind clearly wanted Keith to bite down, every time he pulled away the disappointment was almost tangible. Ulaz had advised against it, but on the other hand, what was this but half a bond? It would have to be completed eventually anyway, no matter what Kolivan or Ulaz said afterwards. 

‘I sure as hell hope you still want this this badly tomorrow,’ said Keith, took a deep breath and bit as hard as he could into the gland. To his mild shock, his fangs extended as he did so and so it didn’t take half as much effort to break the skin, and then his mouth filled with the taste of blood and concentrated scent.

Then the fog cleared completely and he knew Vrek as well as he knew himself. Everything Vrek knew, all his memories, his hopes and fears and the reasons for them - all there as if he’d experienced them himself. He knew what it was like to be an Alpha, he knew what Vrek was going through in his rut, he knew…

He smiled and put out a shaking hand to stroke Vrek’s face. ‘Vrek. Oh, god. You _love_ me.’

Vrek nodded mutely, and Keith was struck by the fact that Vrek was thinking how obvious it was - how could he not have known? Oh, and the bite hurt too, there was that. 

_Hold on. I’ll come straight back._ Keith didn’t even need to say it aloud, and Vrek had no doubts this time - he went to the trunk for the medigel and returned to smear it on the wound as professionally as Vrek might himself. He was aware how much his hand was shaking, and only just managed to cap the tube properly - he threw it in the trunk’s general direction, then swung both arms around Vrek’s neck and slammed their mouths together. It wasn’t even all his decision; Vrek met him halfway, pulling him into his lap, lips parting even as Keith’s locked against his.

If Keith had thought kissing Vrek was good before, this was transcendent, better than the best of the heat. He could feel not only the softness of Vrek’s lips against his, the heat of his mouth, the eager skill of his tongue, but now he was experiencing all the things Vrek liked about kissing Keith - his untrained enthusiasm, the way he would get nippy and tender by turns, the pull of Keith’s fingers in Vrek’s hair - and then again, he was feeling Vrek experiencing the exchange of sensation and taking it in himself until it seemed infinite and he had to sit back, head spinning.

‘Wow,’ he said. ‘I. Wow.’ _I think I know why Ulaz and Kolivan gave me that warning. I might have to stay here kissing you forever, now._

 _Ancestors,_ **_please_** _, yes._ Vrek reached for him and Keith lay back, lips parting to receive the kiss, sinking into the heady miasma of physical sensation that had replaced the mental fog. 

The important thing, now, was for them to be even closer, if that were possible - Keith spread his legs without being aware he’d even done it, and gave Vrek a desperate, warbling call. He had no idea he was going to do it or what it meant until he’d already done it, and then intention was all too clear and Vrek was on him, licking and nipping at the bond mark and pushing inside him. It didn’t matter that there’d been little to no preparation, Keith was sure he was slicker even than he’d been at any point during his heat, and even if it did hurt he didn’t care. He moaned and dragged his nails down Vrek’s back, arching up to get closer, and thinking, _Closer, harder, more, want you, please, Vrek, oh fuck I love you…_

Afterwards, Keith didn’t know whether it had taken vargas or qunintents or decaphoebs, only that it had been incredible. The feeling that now he and Vrek were, on some fundamental level, the same person was the best feeling in the universe and made it so that nothing Ulaz or Kolivan could do would possibly matter.

Time lost meaning for a while, as they concentrated on exploring one another, but eventually - however long it was it was too soon in Keith’s opinion - Keith was aware that the rut was over, and while he was still dizzy with having someone else’s thoughts and his own making a sort of emotional echo chamber in his head, he was actually able to think without that thought being about sex. And the first thing he thought was, _What day is it?_

 _Was that your thought_ ‘-or mine?’ said Vrek, completing his own thought in slurred words against the back of Keith’s neck.

‘Mine? Pretty sure,’ said Keith. ‘Kay, if we keep actually talking I think we can keep this straight. Wait, no, that was your idea…’

Vrek chuckled drunkenly. _This is going to take some getting used to, I don’t remember Kolivan and Antok going through this._

Keith thought they did it in private so nobody ever knew about it. ‘Look. Vrek, babe, we have to sit up. Sooner or later we have to learn to not be touching each other.’ _Also I’m starving._

The reluctance flowing from Vrek was palpable, a great weight of distress and fear that if he released Keith, he might never see him again. Keith turned around to him, overwhelmed in a feeling he knew all too well, and wrapped his arms round Vrek’s back. _I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m never going to leave you I’m sorry…_

‘You’re right, I’m sorry.’ Vrek’s voice was loud and clear despite the emotional turmoil, and Keith looked up into a face that was remarkably calm, given the circumstances. ‘I’m being a terrible alpha. We need to get up and get some food. I’ve let you get horribly dehydrated, this is the worst possible rut, it’s not supposed to be about the sex, I’m sorry.’ 

He made a tremendous effort - it almost didn’t show, but Keith felt how much it cost him - to let Keith go long enough to go to the trunk and bring back protein bars and vitamin drinks, but as soon as Vrek was back he gathered Keith in against his side where he belonged. ‘If this rut had gone ahead as normal you would have wanted for nothing.’

Keith knew, but couldn’t talk much with his mouth full. _You’re an amazing alpha. And now you’re **my** alpha. Kolivan’s gonna flip but I don’t care. _

Vrek buried his nose against Keith’s throat and scented him thoroughly. _Kolivan probably knows it was going to happen eventually. I may have lost all respect Ulaz ever had for me, though._

‘Oh same,’ said Keith, talking with his mouth full. 

Vrek snorted. _You have an option to communicate with your mouth closed while you eat and you fail to use it, you animal._

‘I never claimed to be respectable,’ replied Keith happily. _Actually I did, though, I told Ulaz he should have more respect for me than to think I’d bite you the minute his back was turned. He’s going to freak._

* * *

 

Once they had cleaned each other up and got into fresh uniforms - slowed significantly by the fact that neither could bear to not be touching the other for more than a few ticks at a time - Ulaz did, as predicted, freak. 

He took one look at them, arms tightly round one another’s waists, other hands with fingers wound together, looked at Keith and said, ‘You bit him, didn’t you. After everything you said, you bit him.’

Keith winced. ‘Well, I-’

‘Stand to attention, does this look like an at-ease situation?’ Vrek and Keith straightened up, but kept their fingers laced together - Ulaz glared at their joined hands, but didn’t comment. ‘“Do you honestly think that poorly of me” you said. Well, it’s good to know my instincts were at least right and I was _correct_ in thinking that poorly of you initially. Although really, given your track record, you’ve never been particularly good at following orders to the end of the mission.’

Keith and Vrek both grimaced at that - the words stung, even moreso because they were true. Ulaz just glared at them both stonily and went on talking.

‘Vrek, I don’t place much blame on, because you weren’t really in your right mind, although given your training I would have thought you could do better. Keith, it’s not up to me to punish you. That’s Kolivan’s job, and I suspect the training you both will need to make you function as individuals will be bad enough. If you want me to ever trust you with anything ever again, you’re going to have to earn it, do you understand?’

Keith nodded. ‘Yes, Ulaz.’

‘And now I would love to hear why you thought biting Vrek against orders and medical advice was a good idea.’

‘I wanted him to,’ said Vrek. 

Ulaz instantly rounded on him. ‘Did I ask you?’

‘No, sir,’ said Vrek, staring straight ahead.

‘Then don’t answer, I don’t care if you live in his head now. Keith. What were you thinking?’

Keith took a deep breath and said, ‘I could hear him - not quite thinking, but feeling - in my head. And it was the only thing he wanted, and I thought, it’s half-done, if it doesn’t get completed then what’s gonna happen? He seemed kind of lost without the other half of the bond, like it was the only thing he needed to go on, so… that’s why.’

Ulaz stared at him for a second, his mouth a thin line of disapproval, then said, ‘And now you’re both lost, as opposed to just one of you. Kolivan says you’re confined to medbay quarters until he calls for you, which should be soon, so please try and stay out of my way until then. Dismissed.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, no longer on haitus! This one is still probably going to be pretty slow, but it IS happening! Thankyou for your lovely comments everyone, and your loyalty! You make me wanna keep going!
> 
> Here we have fierce commanding officer Ulaz. He has a lot to be pissed off about.


End file.
